Posture and Occlusion
by Dr.Masaoki Nishimura
(Extraction)
transrated by Thomas.R.Ward

Introduction

God created man to stand erect and walk forward, and bestowed upon him a physique meeting these conditions. During the process of evolution from four legs to two, it is thought that child birth became difficult and the spinal cord could not adequately adapt to the weight of the head and the brain which had developed.

Nonetheless, I would like to basically adopt the premise that there has been no mistake in man&s creation since there are people who are perfectly healthy. Therefore I believe that, if we elucidate the relationship bet-ween health and the ideal form from which we have deviated, a good plan of treatment for disease can be formulated.

The following are the three elements of health. 1.diet, 2.posture, and 3.mental stability. Although diet is within the field of dentistry, the relationship of dentistry to posture and mental stability is not so clearcut. In this paper I will in particular discuss the relationship of occlusion and posture.

Disturbances in Posture and Disease

Distarbances in posture are said to be the origin of many different illnesses.This becomes clear when we consider pinched nerves and disturbances in the circulatory system, both of which arise from postural problems. Let us consider why we have postural problems. Although the reasons are classified as congenital and acquired, it has been written in several books that the major cause lies in habits. Whenever there are bad habits, muscle tension will occur in some way or other.

Although we want to know the reason, we do not yet understand the details. For these reasons, the actual state of affairs is that we do only symptomatic treatment such as postural corrections and the treatment of muscle fatigue. In fact, there are chiropractic treatments, Isogai Ryoho, pelvic adjustments, exercise methods, Makko-ho, and yoga as well as several other folk treatments.

Although postural disturbances due to poor habits do arise, since the same disturbances arise even in people whose occupations do not require such unnatural postures, there is though to be some major cause or element at work here. There is no other reason for folding our feet when we sit in a chair other than the fact that it is comfortable. The reson we rest our chin on our hands, the reason we take a relaxing posture by putting our left foot forward when we stand up straight, and the reason we round our shoulders are all the same. We do these things subconsciously in order to take a more comfortable posture.

It is impossible to consciously correct postures like these which we assume unconsciously. Consequentry, it is only natural to think that when there are disturbances in posture, there is something broken and this has resulted in the body making adaptations in order to adjust to these problems.

Differences in Symmetry and Deviations

The Virgin Mary breast feeds Christ while holding him in her left arm in the same way almost all mothers do. In this situation there seems to be almost no relationship between being right handed or left handed. In this position the child can hear his mother's heart beat and it is said that he is relaxed by the continuation of the sounds which he experienced in the womb. It seems that the heart being on the left determines the side of breast feeding.

When a person holds his hands behind him, if he is righ-handed he will grasp his right hand with his left. Although which hand a person uses seems to have some affect on his action, demeanor and posture, opinions are divided as to which side of the neck becomes stiff when he writes (the side associatede with the hand which is writing or the one associated with the hand which is holding the paper). The majority of people rotate inclined towards the right, indicating that there is probably some relationship with the hand being used.

Let us consider for a moment symptoms which are unilateral.

Such ailments as migraine headaches, stiff necks, hip pain, and sciatic neuralgia are not necessarily related to which hand a person uses. Then what is the reason for the manifestation for these unilateral symptoms? Although for years it has been said that, "a deviated nasal septum will show itself in a crooked spine," if the mandible is deviated to one side, the nose will also be crooked to the same side. A deviation of the mandible pulls the corner of the mouth, and shows up in the relative dimentions of the eyes.

Furthermore, habitual unilateral mastication strengthens the development of the muscles of mastication on that side as well as causing swelling in the regin of the corner of the mouth.

Occlusion and the position of the mandible change facial appearance, cause deviations in the position of the head, as a compensating effect result in the shoulder rising, cause a double S curve in one spine, and even extend their influence to the feet.

On the other hand, there is also the case where ascending temporomandibular joint arthrosis has been brought about when the body's weight has been shifted to one side over a long period of time due to a sore knee.

A corn on the foot has even brought on tem-poromandibular joint arthrosis.

The Discovery of the Relationship with Occlution

The author is temporomandibular joint arthrosis patient. For this reason I have an interest in occlusion and posture and have come to do research in this field. Aside from the mandibular anterios, all of my teeth have been prepared for crowns and I have been fighting with occlusion having temporary restorations for approximately 8 years.

I was taught Krough-Poulen's diagnosis pro-cedure and was surprised to learn, when I applied it to my own occlusion, that my muscles had also reacted in that manner. Following adjustment of the occlusal pattern, terrible headaches and stiff necks were approximately 80% cured. I soon realized that there was a correlation between the occurrence of stiff necks and hip aches.

One day I saw patients all morning having forgotten to place the temporary restorations in my right mandibular molars. Going out for lunch I hile trying to climb the pedestrian overpass that the shin of my left molar region, the symptoms appeard in my left leg was heavy and seemed to drag. The next day, when I left out the temporary crowns in my right leg. From this experience the auther realized for the first time that occlusion, the sho-ulders, hips and legs were all linked together as one system.

At about that time I read a book about the pelvic regulation health method. I was amazed to find out how many people had the same problem when I visited the author's clinic and saw the waiting room full with patients from all over the country. While waiting approximately 30 minutes I realized that almost all of the people either had faces distorted to the left or the right, or had end to end occlusion. A few of the patients allowed me to do an oral examination. I correctly surmised from my above mentioned experience that about five of these people had chief complaints such as pain in the left shoulder or right migraine headaches. I came to feel that there is a relationship between occlusion and in the shape of the face, and that it was not particularly difficult to guess the location of the symptoms. I think that at the present time only dentists can diagnose these oral findings.