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Any one heard of Dr. Sims


ccc

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I am back home now and just devastated. I don't know why but I really thought this was going to work. Dr. Sims did spend a lot of time with me and my son and he did ask if I noticed any triggers (which I do not) for him. He showed my son how to find the right bite to put his teeth in the grooves - still did not take the tics away, not even a little. Dr. Sims took a video (about 20 minutes) of my son without the device in and then took another 20 minutes with the device in. He said he was going to study the videos to see what he noticed. I am having a telephone consult with him a week from Monday. My ds has no pain with it and is not uncomfortable but cannot eat with it in. Obviously we did not bond it in his mouth. Dr. Sims thinks it might have something to do with the fact that my son always pulls his jaw to the left when he closes his mouth. The left side was also the side that showed on the x-ray to have no space at all between the upper and lower jaw. It is also the side which his ear tube has still not fallen out and the side where he gets pain when flying or when he is sick. Dr. Sims has set me up with an ortho where I live and is going to review my ds case with him. He thinks he might need an upper jaw expander to relieve the pressure from the side as well as the bottom. At this point, I have spent so much time and money on this that I feel like I am going to at least go see this ortho and find out what he thinks. My sons tics were so bad yesterday I just wanted to die. He is only 5-1/2 and I am so scared of what is to come in the next few years. I am not yet ready to give up on Dr. Sims but I am also thinking of trying topomax. Anyone heard from Michael Tampa?

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Mylittleangel,

 

I am so sorry to hear this. I was hoping you would get better news. It sounds like he told you the same thing he told us. We have an appointment next Wed. with an Ortho. I hope he is not just telling us this because he does not know what else to say. A part of me feels like he should give some of the money back since it did not work. It really is ridiculous what he charges for the retainer. Hang in there you are not alone. Before all of this I thought about topomax but I hate medications. I was really hoping to start this school year with no tics but that does not look like that will happen. I just have to keep trusting in God and know that he is the ultimate healer.

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mylittleangel

i am sorry to hear this. i dont know if this helps and i dont know how severe your sons tics are but what we do sometimes in between all of the different alternatives we try, we take a Break... In the end i just want my boy to be a little boy and not always have the focus on his tics. that might mean not saying "STOP, you cant eat THAT!". It also means for me taking a break from searching and looking for answers. That way we can focus on family time and not just tics. Again, i am sorry about that. I dont think this means to give up hope on this theory but unfortunately it seems as though it is in the early stages of development.

hugs

V

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Hi there all,

 

Sorry to be just now posting to give some of my experience. I see this thread has grown by a number of pages since a week ago when my wife and I began our drive to Maryland.

 

As a caveat/reminder, I know that every TS is different, but I am truly not the "normal" TS case, in that the worst of my symptoms are not the motor/vocal tics. It is the emotional/thought tics, and the big sensitivity to fluorescent lights. Most doctors would ignore the minor visual tics and say I have an emotional problem and a light sensitivity that they have no idea what to do with.

 

Anyway, we did go ahead and get the device for me. I got it Thursday afternoon. It is a 9 millimieter adjustment, moving my jaw downward that much. My jaw is also being adjusted one half tooth to the left and forward as well. I cannot eat with it. The 9 mm is on the high end of what Dr. Sims sees, but not out of the range. With the device in, my front top and front bottom teeth do not touch, and so ripping food with these teeth is out of the question. With the device in, the molars are covered by the device, so there is no feeling of what is being done to the teeth, and my tongue is so far down that it cannot clean the device's fake teeth or feel what is going on with the food up there. I have been experiencing some soreness and rubbing, and have not yet tried to sleep with it. My mouth is somewat adjusting, and I may try sleeping with it tonight.

 

My eye-blinking tic does not seem to be helped. Again, for me, this is minor. I have not experienced any of the minor painless muscle spasms in arms/legs since I got the device. That's good news, but also nothing to celebrate because they never bothered me. The sharp painful spasm in my left foot is too early to judge. It really acted up with the MRI which got Tuesday afternoon, following the first appointment Tuesday morning. I am very sensitive to EMF's these days, and while some adjustment was made to fluorescent lights in Dr. Sims office, I still got some there, and of course at the MRI facility, and then the MRI itself is lots of magnetism. Anyway, it was a very difficult day which is going to take my foot some day to calm down from all that exposure, which it is doing, but it has not gone away.

 

To top it off, I have this Philip Stein watch that radiates Schumann (sp?) frequency to keep me more grounded and emotionally stable--it helps. I have just had it about a month, and wear it by my ankle (not wrist) because I am too sensitive to touch to adjust to it there. I finally adjusted to having it on my ankle, and so I forgot about it, didn't take it off for the MRI, and remembered about 10 minutes in. I was totally freaked out! Before the MRI, there is this questionnaire that talks about how dangerous it can be to have metal in/on you during the MRI! My ankle was not in the machine, but it was close. Anyway, the tech took it off when I told him about it, but this only added to the experience.

 

The situation of having breath stop during sleep, or almost stop during restful quiet on couch, has not happened yet, and this could mean that this problem is helped/corrected by this device. Just going a couple/few days without that is no proof yet--this didn't happen every day or anything like that. I swallowed a tablet whole for the first time in my life yesterday morning. It was small, and I still had to bite it to get the bite reflex going, but, it didn't break and I was able to swallow it whole, and, as I said, I've never ever done that before. The device was not in my mouth at the time, I do not wear to do anything with pills/food, but I do drink water with it in.

 

By the way, it is quite an adjustment to try to speak clearly with this thing. Again, I think the 9 mm adjustment is the key, and how far the tongue is away from the roof of the mouth. It's hard to get it up to the roof to make the "s" sound, and it doesn't help that my tongue just fit before the device, and now the device is taking up some space inside the teeth as well. I don't think I bit my tongue at all yesterday. There's progress in adjusting to the device! The biting is not a tic, just with the device in, there's less room for the tongue. I must say I am glad I am going back to a job tomorrow where my skills are established and my judgment and knowledge is trusted. To start a new job with a lisp like that would probably be difficult, people do judge you based on stuff like that, even though of course it is not fair.

 

I am going to test fluorescent light effects slowly. There is so much of the "don't think about the monkeys" going on, and I see it in trying to notice if my eye-blinking tic is still there. The flourescent lights sensitivity has grown over time. I believe my therapist thinks this relates to anticipation of the result, and I am not going to rush into a store with these lights to see what happens. My anticipation will cause the bad response. I feel I need to go slowly and get a small exposure here and there that I might tolerate anyway, and build and see what happens like that. This is really the most pressing issue for me, which I only presume is related to TS, as it's the best/only theory out there at this time.

 

I still have music endlessly playing through my head--all the time while awake. Yes, all the time.

 

Dr. Sims did say that it can take time, at least a couple weeks, for the emotional symptoms to be helped (he calls them OCD, as do many). He believes building up serotonin is part of that.

 

My overall level of anxiety/nervousness really has decreased, and so does my pulse after having the device in for a while. I am expecting more good to come as I learn to sleep with the device. It's hard to put a number on this, I don't know what normal is, but there is real improvement here. We'll see how it lasts as I return to work tomorrow! Next to fluorescent lights, this is probably my biggest TS issue. Okay, well, then there's digestion. No improvement yet. However, I am going to a gastroenterologist in a couple weeks. There are real signs of problems as this really worsened a couple months ago. Anyway, with all the candida and food allergies, this device will only do so much. Maybe it can help support normal digestion once the candida is controlled and food allergies removed (again! again! again!) and the GI tract is pronounced healthy, but to expect changes at this time here seems unrealistic to me.

 

I really do believe that Sims and Stack are on to something here that will relate to a lot of TS. I believe Sims is sincere. I really wished he believed more in energy testing and allowed me to bring in someone to help finetune the adjustments. I think he does not devote enough time to really testing and getting it just right. There are 3 dimensions of adjustments--up/down, forward/backward, and left/right. Sure, all the X-rays and MRI's are nice, but they're obviously not enough, and I blame this on the mixed results we are all seeing. To do it by observation, there are too many combinations to have someone sit through at 30 minutes each to really see what the effect is. That just seems like the harsh reality. What he could do combined with someone really skilled, like someone with Eden Energy or similar training! Try a simple adjustment, ask the body how it feels in a couple seconds, ask the body which direction to try! I will give this some time with this device as it is, but I expect to be working on arranging a local dentist here who believes in this testing or will tolerate it. We may have someone in our area who is a dentist who will believe in it and do it (but he has fluorescent lights everywhere--ugh!). If not, a combination of a good dentist who is eager to learn and who will tolerate another expert helping out (my acupuncturist who is very skilled at energy testing) is what I'll be looking for.

 

That's it for now! In short, mixed results, symptom number 1 not tested yet, some help, it really can take time for me, we'll see. This is probably it for me on the computer today, but will be happy to answer any questions tomorrow or whenever.

 

Michael

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Just wanted to post on what the Ortho said at my sons appointment yesterday. He had called and talked with Dr. Sims the day before to discuss my sons case. He said of course he had never hard of such but was not fimilar enough with the study to say in his opinion if this would work or not. He did say that my son had a cross bite and would need and upper expander. The problem is that because of his age he would not recommend it until another year. He said he would go ahead if we wanted to but in the end we would be spending more money because it would need to be done in 2 phases opposed to 1 phase if we waited. Another thing was that once he fittef him with the expander he said the device that Dr. Sims made would not fit. Dr. Sims made told us that he could wear both at the same time. The Ortho said there was no way and when the upper teeth were expanded his bite would not fit on the device. So needless to say I am very upset. I have not talked with Dr. Sims yet to tell him this info. I am really trying to figure out what all I want to say. I feel like he should have know that the device would not fit. I am not a doctor but if you think about it it makes sense. Please pray for our family for understanding. I feel bad that I even brought this topic up if it helps no one.

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((((((ccc)))))),

 

Don't worry about bringing up the topic, God Bless you for wanting to do something for all of our kids. I'm still P.O. at newtotics who has clamped up about the so call help their child has had. All of us who have been through very tough days dealing with TS would go to the ends of the earth to help our child.

 

Now maybe because my son already has braces is why Dr. Sims felt we could work with her. We had already given Dr. Sims info to ortho. before we went to see Dr. Sims. So he knew we were wondering what we were going to do about the braces.

 

Are things still the same?

 

Praying for you,

CP

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ccc,

 

I'm sorry to hear this has turned into something so complicated now and hope it will all turn out for you somehow. By the way, thank you very much for bringing the topic up. Getting the device has already helped me. At this time, no, not as much as I was dreaming of, but, we will see over time. Although some people may have dramatic results right away, I do believe there can still be improvement over time. I wish I had more time to give an update, it will probably be tomorrow when I get to that. There is some good and some bad to report, but I am glad I have the device.

 

Michael

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Dear ccc thank you very much for bringing this topic in. My personal opinion (I do not wish to influence anybody else’s opinion on this topic) is that this trigeminal nerve issue with correlation to ticks has to be explored more. I am very scared that the negative experience that people have here will stop the research of this topic. I would want to hear that more doctors ready to look at this issue. May be it is just more complicated than we thought in the first place. I was thinking to post further or not, but decided just to give some info and I hope people will not stop telling about their experiences nevertheless of how good or bad they are. We were able to perform the MRI today by using our insurance. When my daughter was inside I was able to see the pictures on the computer and talk to the lady (she was very kind.) I asked her if she can notice any trigeminal nerve suppression. She told that she can not answer and that we have to wait until the doctor sees the report, but when she started to take the measurements from different points (on the computer) she mentioned that one of the angles of her jaw is moved away from the right position. After my daughter came out I told her about what lady said and my daughter told that she knows what the lady means. My daughter said (she actually showed that to me ) when she put her upper teeth straight (without overbite) on top of her lower teeth we saw that her upper jaw is moved a little bit to the right. When we were at Dr. Sims we were thinking that the problem is only with her overbite now there is probably another direction that we did not notice.

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ccc,

Just by having this information, it can help us, because you never know where it will lead. We all do our own research and make our own decisions. Even tho I felt that I did not want to go forward with this at this time for my child, the information (wether it has merit or not) has given me some ideas and at least another direction to look into. I sincerely thank you for finding this avenue of research for us and bringing it to our attention. You NEVER KNOW what tidbit of information can help someone or help put some missing peices together.

 

I'm truly sorry it has not worked out the way you hoped, but maybe somehow it will be a stepping stone to the next thing that will help.

 

Faith

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I had a friend of mine pass the case study and a video on to her dentist. I believe he is a craniodontist...in Canada. He said he has known Dr. Stacks for many years and has had some course with him. He is world renowned about his approaches to TMJ and overall health has witnessed many videos about the improvement his patients have had.

 

I also spoke breifly to the neuroscientist. He said the paper did grab his attention and that the neurophysiology behind it is accurate.

 

I am still waiting to hear back from neuroanatomy prof from the chiropractic college.

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Vanessa,

;) "miss clarification" here again, lol...

sorry, but did you mean the craniodondist was world-renowned or that he said Dr. Stack was world renowned for HIS approach to TMJ treatment and that the dentist has witnessed some of his work?

 

if so, then I guess you are saying that Dr. Stack has a reputation amongst the dental profession?

 

thanks

Faith

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Vanessa,

;) "miss clarification" here again, lol...

sorry, but did you mean the craniodondist was world-renowned or that he said Dr. Stack was world renowned for HIS approach to TMJ treatment and that the dentist has witnessed some of his work?

 

if so, then I guess you are saying that Dr. Stack has a reputation amongst the dental profession?

 

thanks

Faith

Yes, Dr. Stack was world renowned...

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Okay then, finally getting to an update. By the way, I have also finally watched the Dr. Stacks youtube video, and it looked like his work was a little more careful/deliberate than than what Dr. Sims did. For example, he let the patient try out different levels of adjustment in his home or hotel before deciding. If I knew what I know now and was deciding to go, I would probably go to Dr. Stacks instead of Dr. Sims.

 

I got the device on July 23. I am much more calm emotionally--less anxious/nervous. My wife and I noticed this just the second day. My resting pulse measurements illustrate it too. Generally, they had been about 80 (range of 75-90). Now, they are about 70 (range of 65-80). That's quite a difference, and the difference in calmness is really wonderful too. I do have periods of real stress here and there, for some minutes or even an hour, and there are some terribly traumatic past events that can be worked on some more, but even here, now it is clear what that is, rather than just being in a constant state of nervousness the whole time and not ever really knowing why. I have been in just a better mood of happy a lot, even with a mild headache when I had one, and when things go badly at work or whatever, I have been able to have a much outlook on it and still be overall happy. I am just walking down the hallway smiling for no reason, and that is happening a lot--it's crazy! My one therapist (on the way out) noted I am not constantly having both hands on my chest by my heart, as if to try to calm myself. My other therapist (the new one) noted that my facial muscles were much more relaxed, including but not limited to area of eyes.

 

I'd say my biggest presumed-to-be-TS-related issues have been:

1. sensitivity to fluorescent lights and other EMF's and radio waves (cell phones, wireless laptops, etc.);

2. the uncontolled anxiety/stress/nervousness/moods; and

3. all sorts of digestive problems; digesting poorly; acid reflux; food allergies; etc.

 

My sense is that issue 1 (lights etc.) has not been helped with this, but, I am not sure. I have not really had a good test, and am kind of waiting until it seems like a good idea. Both my therapists and I are concerned about, at this time, so much conditioning of my body to react a certain way (a la Pavlov's dogs), going out and testing and getting disappointed. So, we will wait a while, and see if I can get more prepared for that. But, really, I am going to work, due to all the adjustments, I get only some exposure at work, and I think the results of mild head disturbances are happening.

 

But, I have had headaches almost every day, even without any fluorescent light exposure, ever since getting the device. Actually, not the first couple/few days, where I was just really tired a lot, but ever since like 2-3 days later. I think a lot of that is the adjustment of bones working through. But, I started to feel really good this morning, without a headache, now I have a mild head disturbance by the end of the work day. For the fluorescent lights at work? Probably. Just another day of headaches, but a mild one, from the device? It's possible, it's just not my guess.

 

If I had to pick one thing I was hoping the device could do, it would be help with the fluorescent lights and EMF's. This is really debilitating, limits me in so many ways of what I can do, and causes many issues beyond headaches--nightmares, acid reflux, rage attacks. Perhaps, if it can't help the headaches, maybe improvement of mood will at least limit the impact. We'll see.

 

Issue 2 has been enormously helped, as I've said.

 

Issue 3 has improved only very slightly the last few days. Every couple/few months I go through with my acupuncturist doctor, and she does kinesiology testing of all my supplements, to see which ones to take and how many and all that. We did this just last Friday. I had been taking 59 items, and I tested for no longer needing/tolerating 11, so now I am down to 48. Also, on 13 of the remaining items, the dosage was reduced (such as from 2 times per day to 1 time per day). After making this reduction, then my elimination improved just a little bit. It is still horrible, and I am going to a gastroenterologist tomorrow in search of some procedures that might help look for problems. It is possible there is a lot of physical damage at this point that just needs to be healed before anything like this could improve. Or, another possibility is that this will stop the process of introducing food allergies, and maybe after I fix them up, I won't keep getting them again. So, it's a little early to judge impact on digestion, but, not much so far.

 

Those are my big-time issues, but there are other items that could be noted. The need for less supplements (primarily B vitamins and neurological related herbs/supplements) is a great sign. That was just 8 days after getting the device.

 

Both of my therapists say my eye tics are less now. I would have said I am still having them the same amount. I think we are noticing different things. I am aware when I have the big episodes, of blinking like 10 or 20 times in 5-10 seconds, and to me, I think I have that just as much. But they both say there are more subtled eye-blinking tics I have that they see as happening much less. Dr. Sims also noted that he saw me having eye blinking tics, after being there 15 minutes, and my reaction was, to me, no you haven't, because I haven't had any since I came in here. Yet, besides those 3 people, I can't get anyone to acknowledge seeing me have eye blinking tics. Very interesting. Anyway, there's some good news here, how much depends on how you look at it.

 

I did have a brief period of time (a few seconds) a few days ago where there was no music playing in my head. This was the first time I can ever remember this happening. Aside from that, when I am not asleep, there is music just constantly playing in my head. I would have thought it would be much more peaceful without the music, but must say, didn't notice anything like that.

 

I have painless spasms all over my body, but very infrequently (every few days). It turns out, those are continuing. I have painful pulsing spasms in my left foot (on stomach meridian). Those are also continuing. Oh well.

 

I still do occasionally speak in accents, and some other things like needing to finish sentences, repeat ideas, repeat phrases, etc., and all that is more or less continuing. It's hard to judge if it's reduced, but probably not substantially, at least not in my opinion.

 

I can swallow really small pills without chewing them sometimes. This is something I was never able to do. This happened early on, from the more relaxed state, and does not have anything to do with jaw adjustment, and is not even done with the device in. (By the way, I can't eat with the thing in.)

 

I have this thing where I will wake up from sleep or almost-sleep choking, unable to breath, but there's nothing I'm choking on. This still happens. It kept me from sleeping with the device in a couple of nights, when I have phlegm and then with the device in, the airway just seems too narrow. But now I am back, having worn it for 3 nights straight. I think it really helps to have been able to wear it overnight. Without that, still the jaw is in the wrong place about half the time (including meals).

 

Still surprised with all these benefits from relaxed state, that I have have incredibly frequent urination and bad digestion, not helped by this.

 

Anyone else get headaches from wearing this? Did they go away eventually?

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I just want to give some update on our findings. We have received the MRI and the report stated that "RIGHT temporomandibular joint: There is evidence of anterior disc displacement at approximately the 9 o'clock position on the closed mouth view. On the open mouth view there is evidence of recapture." I called DR. Sims and made an appointment. He called me back and said that he received the MRI report and he would find somebody in the city that I can go to with this report and that another doctor would make all the work. That would save us the trip to MD. I was slightly disappointed with this offer. I called Dr. Stack office and made appointment with him. I told them that I have MRI and full mouth x-ray. The lady said that this is not enough and Dr. Stack would also want to have x-rays of:

 

cephalometric;

lateral cervical spine;

frontal scalp;

panaramic,

submentovertex;

tomogram frontal and Lotaral;

 

This list of tis x-rays just confirmed my fillings (I mentioned them in my posts before) that the problem might be more complicated and the spine or other joints and bones may contribute as well as TMJ into our children's condition.

 

Hope my post will be helpful.

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