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Here is a testimonial I just received from a patient who is well on the road to recovery from the 'depths' of "MS" incapacity. It may help some of you understand better and perhaps educate others who might still be uncertain about the roll of dental and Atlas asymmetries in the creation of the incapacities in "MS" patients. Her treatment has been challenging but we are nearly there:
"I am a 56 year old married mother of 4 grown up children and have been in a wheelchair for the last 7 years. I was diagnosed with MS 34 years ago when I was in the final year of a nursing degree course.
Contrary to medical advice at that time I finished the course and after a year as a Staff Nurse trained for a further year to become a midwife. I married and worked full time until I was pregnant with my first child. During this time I experienced 1 to 2 relapses per year of sensory nerve loss, such as pins and needles in my limbs, optic neuritis and other symptoms (which I assumed were ‘MS’ related but I now realise they were not).
When I was 19 years old I had my wisdom teeth removed under general anaesthetic. Following this, I dislocated my jaw (usually as a result of yawning) about 6 times over the next 4 years. This necessitated long painful stays in casualty departments while the relevant specialist was summoned. To avoid this happening when I was responsible for young children, I had surgical insertions of bilateral bone grafts into my temporo mandibular joints. With the benefit of hindsight although they did not solve the problem, they gave me a 10 year period of seemingly fairly inactive/non progressive MS. This is also perhaps an indication that the previous ‘relapsing remitting MS’ was actually caused by the loss of the wisdom teeth and the adverse effect this had on my jaw joint.
In 1984 when I was 28 years old, I stopped paid employment and started a family. At this stage few people (except close family and friends) were aware that I had MS. I was just an understandably tired mum of 4 young children born within 6 years of each other, leading a very busy, active life.
2 years after the last baby was born, the ‘MS’ returned with a vengeance. I was relapsing every 3 months. I seemed to be continually “ill” and started to experience motor nerve loss. My left side was becoming weaker; I walked with a limp etc… At the time the bone grafts in my jaw seemed to have worn out, as I started dislocating it again. A crash course for my husband in how to relocate the jaw was given by a very concerned dentist.
Having avoided any regular contact with neurologists until this last relapse, I decided that once my children were all in school full time, I would see a neurologist if something could be done for me.
I was desperate enough to try anything. I finished up on the co-paxone trial. For 18 months I gave myself daily injections. Every month I had an MRI scan. Every 3 months I had a full neurological examination by the neurologist. It was an experience not particularly enjoyable and definitely not beneficial in any way.
Through a work colleague of my husband’s, we were recommended to give an MS clinic in Essex a try. This opened the door to complementary medicine. Initially I was counselled and then food allergy tested. The results lead to numerous fairly strict elimination diets, expensive food supplements and for the first time in what seems like ages, I began to feel better.
16 years ago trying to obtain organic food was nearly impossible. I got fruit, vegetables and meat delivered and spent the rest of my time trailing round health food shops to obtain expensive gluten free, dairy free foods. Now I buy it all in the local supermarket.
Over the next 10 years, despite sticking to my healthy eating plan, my health continued to deteriorate and I became more physically disabled. After a nasty fall I reluctantly accepted that I was not coping and spent 2 weeks in the local cottage hospital. There I realised the best and safest ways to get around was in a wheelchair.
By 2009 I had been using a wheelchair for 6 years. I had had full time carers for that time and my physical capabilities were severely limited to just a normally functioning right hand and arm.
Throughout most of my time with MS I have always avoided prescription drugs. Those I did try I nearly always rejected because the side effects seemed a lot worse than the symptoms they alleviated. I used oxybutin to reduce bladder irritability from very early on and when it was available used detrusitol (which is the slow release form). Although frequently offered steroids to treat relapses, I always declined them. Apart from a disappointing 18 months Copaxone trial and 8 years using LDN (low dose naltrexone) I never found any need for prescription medicine. I willingly stopped the LDN later at Dr Amir’s request.
September 2009 was a big turning point. Lots seemed to be happening in the MS world. Stem cell therapy, for example. I tried to obtain a place on a research trial, but I did not fit the criteria as I could not walk. Then CCSVI began unfolding. Although I was prepared to pay for treatment, the practicalities of travelling long distances to get the treatment made it impossible.
One evening my husband was browsing the Internet and his attention was called by an article in the Evening Standard:
“Cure for MS with a dental brace”.
As everyone else who is Dr Amir’s patient says “and the rest is history”. It took me less than 48 hours to decide that the article needed further investigation. I had two things wrong with me, MS and a jaw that dislocated. Maybe going to a dentist was a step in the right direction. For me, from then on everything fell into place. Filling in the medical history in the extensive questionnaire that Dr Amir provides, made me see the connection between my long standing dental problems (I've had teeth extracted from age 8 to “make room in my small mouth”).
At my first appointment in Putney, I burst out crying when Dr. Amir scanned my medical and dental history and said the unforgettable words “you realise you don't have MS, you just have a problem with your teeth and jaws?”
At last somebody had worked out the connection between my teeth and the weird neurological signs and symptoms that are called "MS". It all made sense! Dr Amir explained as he fixed my teeth there was a possibility that once jaw alignment had been achieved my body would start to heal and the MS symptoms would disappear. So the treatment was initiated with my enthusiastic approval.
In October 2009 I had my “Atlas” done. A slightly uncomfortable massage with a machine and then a journey home in the car, when my body started to wake up. Within 24 hours I had regained sensation in my normally numb left leg. It was a weird yet wonderful sensation! It CANNOT have been due to "brain lesions".
There followed 3 years of regular appointments, a variety of braces both fixed and removable to address a lot of headaches, sleepless nights, sore teeth, dizziness and overwhelming tiredness. When I look back on it, for the last 3 years, whenever something went wrong with my health instead of blaming my ill health on MS, I could blame it on the brace! It seemed to have taken a long time. My breathing started to recover after some 18 months of treatment. It started to make a huge difference when my irritable bladder resolved (after 2 years).
In November 2012 I can confidently assert I am nearly there. I have been saying that for the last two years. My early problem with my dislocating jaw is virtually resolved, which tells me jaw symmetry is much better.
I realise now that the next stage is up to me. I need to relearn all the skills I lost when or because I had ‘MS’. It’s hard to know where to start, but I am surrounded by helpers and machines that will make it happen.
Thank you doctor Amir for giving me the chance to have a go. It's been a challenging 3 years for both of us, but it was worthwhile and the quality of my life has already improved immeasurably."
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