If you had to explain to a group of laypeople how the intra-oral appliance worked to help neutralize a Left AIC, Right BC, and Right TMCC pattern, how would you? I would love to hear Ron’s explanation in words.
An intra-oral appliance reduces the influence of the bite on the head and neck. By removing familiar intercuspation, the patient has to acquire positional sense of “where to put their mouth” through use of pterygoid function, eliminating their need to elevate the mandible or clench with masseters and temporalis musculature. Bite now autonomically and automatically is secured with cranial rotators and stabilizers and not through the neck extensors, which then allow for more tri-planar or ‘natural’ muscle integration at the appendages and with the diaphragm. Tension is reduced and more focused function is easier to carry out, without relying on torsional (L AIC, R BC & R TMCC) unapposed, muscle patterns that characteristically reflect the humans most comfortable respiratory position.
