plparke

Many of the TMJ "experts" i have spoken with describe the TMJ symptoms and reactions as being very similar to Tourettes. I am going to keep following this lead to the end. I am taking my son to see Dr. Stack. I am also scheduled to hear him speak at a dental conference. I don't believe he has all the answers but i do think he's on to something.

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

Thanks to both of you for your replies. I agree with both of you. I do think foods, or non-foods as it were, are involved and i see a clear connection with the TMJ. I could easily get the opinion that TMJ is at the root of all of it though. My son is better today, why i don;t know. He went to the acupuncturist and she has always had mixed results with him, but he is now ticcing twice an hour instead of 42 times a minute like last night. I could live with this all day. She thinks it was preservatives in the chicken he ate on Sunday but i have called corp HQ of the store i bought it and they say no MSG. Thanks again to both of you, i needed it.

What is the general opinion on the theory of Dr's Stack and Sims and the idea of TS being caused by something similar to TMJ. I am the owner of a dental supply business and i have access to a lot of information about this. I have done a lot of research and found out that in the dental industry as a whole Dr. Stack is very highly respected. He is mentioned in some of the dentist's blogs as being one of the top 5 people in the U.S. in his field. (TMJ). I have passed his paper on to other dentists and ortho specialists and they all find his theory plausible. Also my 9yr old son, who is in the next room as i write this and is ticcing about 40 times a minute, has had jaw alignment issues from the start. I have noticed when he gets his braces tightened his tics often go away completely for a while and my own experience with having him use commercial mouthpieces has been mixed, but promising. I realize this subject has it's own thread but it's too long for me. I need some feedback from those who have tried this and some who have opinions about it. It makes sense to me. This thing is really starting to get me down.

Thanks everyone. i appreciate your replys. It sounds like we will be taking it slow.

My 9 year old son has many tics, eye blinking, throat clearing, shouts, he also appears to be ADHD. He's had the tics off and on since age 7. We do not have a formal diagnosis, it's not been a full year without a pause and when we took him to the neurologist he was temporarily tic free. I have now read many books on the subject but none talk about when and how to have this talk. When i try to bring it up he either gets a little angry about it or he finds a way to weasle out of the discussion. He does not want to talk about it. But it is starting to affect his life.. we are starting to have to do things differently in regards tohim and we don't really give him a good explantion other than "this is better for you". I think it's time to have this talk and i was going to let him also read the book "tic talk". My wife isn't so enthusiastic about this plan. Can someone tell me what i should do?