I am a holistic practitioner and always attempt to find the root cause of my client’s issues. Recently a new client came in with right sided back pain, especially after extended sitting, and some right knee pain. Their chiropractor had said that it was a bulging disc and I agreed, based on how the pain was presenting. The chiropractic spinal adjustment would give my client relief for about a week before the pain returned. Unsatisfied with this band-aid, they came to me to do a root cause analysis.
The first thing I noticed was that their relaxed neutral posture was rotated to the left pretty significantly, including their head. This puts the joints and tissues on the right side under more strain and usually causes pain there. The right sided back pain and right knee pain are likely caused by this misalignment. This big global rotation to one direction is, in my experience, usually caused by one of the following:
- Binocular vision issue (the eyes not tracking well together)
- Jaw misalignment
- Cranial bone misalignment
- Old injuries and related scar tissue that are causing one or many of the above issues.
I did a routine eye movement exam and found that they were very left eye dominant and that their right eye was having trouble coordinating. When I did the oral myofunctional exam the range of movement was normal and the client didn’t have many jaw symptoms, but their jaw was sitting to the left and their tongue was slightly crooked when they stuck it out.
I needed to rule some things out in order to close in on the root cause.
When the eyes are the problem, generally there are changes in stability on closing one or both eyes. In this case, there was no change. When the jaw position is causing the issue, stability assessments will be affected with changes in jaw position. Again, no change. Cranial bones were not showing much specific torsion or tension, so I focused on the last possible cause – old injuries.
Their history included a few injuries, a surgery, and some scars. One of these injuries was chipped front teeth from a blow to the face almost 20 years ago. One of these teeth had additionally had a root canal. That’s a lot of scar tissue. Teeth are highly enervated, as anyone who has had a tooth ache can attest too. The nerve that receives sensory information from the teeth is the Trigeminal nerve, Cranial nerve V (CN V). This nerve has multiple divisions, including one that enervates the muscles in the eye. When the sensory input is compromised, coordinating motor output (movement!) is more difficult for the cerebellum (that’s the part of your brain that controls movement and coordination). A nerve entrapment in the tooth could cause ocularmotor coordination issues.
I absolutely love Neurokinetic Therapy and use it in almost every session. But sometimes, it’s just not the right tool. Neurokinetic Therapy helps to solve motor control issues. When the issue is structural, like a nerve trapped in scar tissue, sometimes what is needed is a precise nerve floss. Improve the sensory input and the motor output will take care of itself. I have some good techniques for mobilizing cranial nerves. A quick attempt at mobilizing the right trigeminal from where it might be trapped in the tooth only took a few minutes and the results were pretty dramatic for such a short amount of time.
Changes in jaw movement and the ease of eye movements were clear right away, improved motor control into the low back muscles and other improvements in posture, including reduced rotation, were noticeable after a few minutes. A very good start.
Because this client’s back pain is episodic, how much the pain is reduced will be evaluated after a few weeks, during the next follow up session. I am confident there will be lots of improvements.
