Dalit

Welcome. We've been on the forum for three years now. Thanks to the shared knowledge here we've kept our daughter off medications, and her condition improved tremendously. She started ticcing at age 7, very abruptly, with the mouth stretches you're describing your son has. In the begining she was ticcing numerous times a minute, and it was very stressful on her body and mind. We tried accupuncture first, and she still sees an accupuncturist every couple of weeks. i feel that this treatment (which may be much less expensive) has done a lot of good for her (in reducing tics, but not eliminating them). Her accupuncturist also practices NAET, which can be used to diagnose allergies or sensitivities (some say can cure them as well). This is helpful in deciding what to eliminate from the diet. By the way, my daughter had childhood asthma (cured at age 4 - accupuncture and NAET), and has those dark circles under her eyes, too. We found that eliminating gluten is very helpful. If corn has an adverse effect, try almond flour instead. it's easy to bake with and very healthy. There is a company in Southern California called Honeyville that specializes in that, and it will cost you much less than in whole foods. (it does come in large quantities - you can just freeze part of it, and it will be fine). The whole alternative medicine journey does tend to get very expensive. We've tried homeopathy (very expensive and didn't help our daughter), as well as the TMJ connection (may be helping, we're still on the fence about that). Your son is 7 and just started ticcing, so it may very well be a transient tic disorder. You can start with the simple things - magnesium, good vitamins, eliminating foods, and give it a few months, before you turn to the very expensive practitioners. Good luck.

Thank you LLM. you are so right. This forum was our only valid help in many ways, and led us away from conventional medicating solutions, and towards trying altenative ones, which resulted in many calm days for DD. The forum supports us and we should make sure it can be maintained. It's like taxes, isn't it? If we want the services, there's something we need to give in return.

It's been a while since i wrote in. We've had a few good months after deleting gluten again from DD's diet, and incorporating magnesium and B6/B12. As some of you may remember, we've been exploring the structutal/TMJ/neck problems connection, and to our detriment, i thought that now that things are so calm, we'll try the Alexander Technique, that deals with good posture, putting less tension on the muscles, etc'. so DD had one lesson on Wednesday, and started waxing a couple of hours later, and it's been getting worse and worse, until today she even started with some mild hummnig, which she didnt have ever since her tics broke out three years ago (after a few months of very intense facial tics, body tics, and some mild vocals, she was left with the facial tics only). This may confirm our suspicion that her neck troubles are related to the tics, but it doesn't help us now. Anyone has an idea? increased vitamins? To complicate things, and just to make sure we are never contemplating one variable only, DD is also 10.5, and just started developing, so it may be the hormones paying here as well. any advice is appreciated.

No it is a chiropractic procedure that deals more with touch and breathing than with regular adjustimg. i don't know much more than that.

Good Luck! I hope this works. This is what our dentist is talking about as well - bringing the jaw forward.

Anyone ever heard/tried?

Chemar, my daughter also has tummy issues that seem to go along in trend with tics. She suffers from a very bloated tummy - no gas, no pain - just very distended, scary at its worst. Her "team" of health care providers say that the nerves that go through the neck/jaw affect the digestive system as well. To answer some of faith's questions: when I said "rest her head" i did mean when she lies down. I just wanted to emphasize the support for the head. My daughter is almost ten years old, and we started this treatment a year ago. It's absolutely much more complicated than the simple widening of the jaw, and she has been treated by a cranial osteopath, that works alongside Dr. Nordstrom, during this year (Chemar - is it similar to the NUCCA chiropracts? sounds like it is), as well had many constant adjustments to her appliance (that also broke a couple of times - we've spent a LOT of money already). The purpose is to slowly promote growth of the jaw to where it's supposed to be, and in the process to hope that the neck will align. When the appliance is adjusted the doctors "feel" her head (osteopathic technique) to find the right height/positioning of the device, where she is most balanced, and sometimes it works wonders. But obviously, she's still growing, and apreviously achieved balance is quickly over, and a new one needs to be found... The "stick" test always sounded too simplistic, but I do remember reading about another dentist in Florida (was it Garcia?) that uses electronic equipment to find that point of balance, and builds the device according to that. I remember reading a few success stories last year. couldn't find it now, though. IF this is indeed the problem, it should be easier to treat in 3 years or so, when she's done growing. We are now just happy for the few weeks at a time when she's at ease, and we hope that we're doing the right thing, and working in the right direction.

Reading Lynn's post about the dental injury that resulted in increased tics, I feel that I should reopen the TMJ and structural issue. Our daughter is being treated by Dr. Nordstrom, who invented the ALF design that's supposed to re-align and create balance in the bones of the skull, jaw, neck. (Dr. Sims' and Stack's devices are built on his design). The theory is (god only knows if it's correct) that imbalances in the way her neck vertebrae sit on top of each other cause constant shifts, as she attempts to balance her head on her neck. This constact micro movement is an irritation to the muscles and ligaments that progresse to the nervous system. Support for the theory: 1. an ICAT scan we did a year ago shows the neck vertebrae misaligned. the ligaments connecting her head to the neck and shoulders show a process of calcification - as the pressure on them is much bigger than it should be. 2. she can have the wildest tics - wide mouth openings that sometimes last ten seconds each - but a few seconds after she rests her head, they will ALL go away. 3. good in the morning, bad in the afternoon - as the muscles get tired. 4. Even in excelent times, activities that force a very upright posture will triger tics - sitting at the piano, ballet. 5. any activity that results in tight muscels in the neck or back will result in ticcing the next day. 6. she used to have neck problems way before tics started - she used to wake up in the middle of the night with extremely tight neck. What can be attributed to this in general: 1. the common starting age of tics/tourretes - at a time when the skull and jaw grow a lot 2. observations that tics start/aggrevated by dental/orthodontic work - things that change the balance of the skull and jaw bones. 3. tense postures aggravate tics - TV, reading 4. pre-teen years are bad - when they lose and grow teeth I know that all of these may have different explanations, but I'm wondering, for example, if anyone else notices immediate relief when the children rest their head. As for our daughter - it's been very good for the first 9 months of treatment, but a few months ago, when she started losing baby molars. we started going downhill very fast (maybe because the device doesnt have anything to hold on to, as the teeth that are about to fall off, and the bone underneath them, grow weak). It's been a tough few months. Dr. Nordstrom may try to build a temporary slightly different device that relies less on the teeth, and more on the cheeks. We'll see. It all makes a lot of sense. I just wish we could see more constant results.

I hope your son is doing better, Lynn. Reading this brings to my mind the question of the theory of the structural imbalances in the jaw/neck that may cause tics. If so many children are affected by dental treatment, maybe it is a factor. Dalit

Anyone ever heard/tried Low Dose Naltrexone therapy for tic or Tourette?

[Fixit, Here is a link to ALF practitioners site. Myofunctional therapists (also called orofacial myologists) are marked in green. I'm sure others can be found that are not associated with the ALF. http://www.alforthodontics.com/Practitione...amp;%20Labs.htm

Hi, my daughter has been with the ALF appliance for almost a month, and we cannot answer your question yet. The dentist who made the appliance for her said her TMJ is so compressed, he would have had to make her appliance so tall, that she wouldnt be able to eat. So he's going slowly, providing some vertical support, and hoping that as the upper arch widens with the treatment, pressure on the joint will ease. So far tics have been changing from day to day. Some days are exceptionally good, but others are as ususal. However, from all I've read in this forum, it seems to me that everyone who went to be checked, even if the appliance did not help, is indeed suffering from some kind of missalignment, or compressed TMJ. So I'm sending the question back to you, as you are in the dental business and have many connections: Do we know what precentage of the population is suffering from similar missalignments, and is it different from the percentage in the TS population? It seems to me that a simple inexpensive experiment can answer the question: x-raying a group of TS and a control group of non-TS, and seeing if a considerable difference in results emerges. Dalit

Michael's post reminded me that we are also doing some functional work, to accompany the structural. Dd is doing myofunctional theyrapy, to rebuild degraded msucles in her jaw and cheeks, and to learn proper chewing and swallowing. Her upper jaw arch is so narrow, there was no room for her tongue. The excercises are supposed to correct posture as well.

My daughter just turned nine. She is with the ALF all day. Bottom part is removable but she does eat with it. DD's tics started when she was 7, quite abruptly. For us it wasnt an option not to act. When her tics started they were so frequent (every 2-3 seconds) and so strong (a wide, abrupt mouth opening was the most frequent and obvious, but she had many others), that she was physically exhausted. We tried acupuncture, reducing stress, massages, and tics were reduced slightly. After we found this forum, and at the advice we found here, we did parasite and candida cleansing, and continued with better diet. This reduced the tics even further, and they then stayed in a moderate condition, very manageable, but still there. We never had much success with supplements. Maybe we didnt get the right combination. We then let go, and tried to live with it as it is. But a few months ago, still at a very managable level of tics, dd started having minor OCD, very light, just a few times a week, for a few seconds (touching things twice, for example). We went back to research, as we found the prospect of OCD increasing very scary, and we then found the Dr Sims discussion. It made sense to us, and we investigated further. And that's where we are right now. Hoping that it will work.

[Dr. Sims will adjust the retainer but we were trying to get it done locally so we would not have to fly. It has been awhile since I have been on so I do not know what a ALF is. Is that the upper wire that Dr. Stacks puts on?] Yes the ALF is the upper wire, which is supposed to balance jaw and skull bones. By the way, my husband brought home today a brochure from a dentist office, that advertises a lower teeth device for athletes, that looks a lot like the device Sims and Stack are using. It claims "unleash your athletic potential", and is based on the fact that a natural tendency to clench teeth pinches the nerves that go through the TMJ and releases cortisol and similar stress, fatigue and distraction inducing hormones. Thought it was interesting.