Dental biomechanics vs. trigger point therapy

One of them will have you running in place whereas the other will have you constantly moving forward. Guess which one is which?

There was a good topic on one of the article threads yesterday that I thought would make a good article. It was on trigger points.

You see I’d had jaw/neck/upper back tightness ever since my early 20’s. I was constantly going to massages or taking powerful muscle relaxants all through my twenties and thirties.

But nothing seemed to provide more than temporary relief.

Then someone told me about trigger points and I quickly purchased the Clair Davies workbook. This was probably around 2009 or so.

And at first I thought I’d found a gold mine. I’d spent hours working various parts of my body in the way that the workbook recommended.

And it provided some true relief.

But nothing seemed to be permanent. And so it was like a perpetual cycle of trying to work them, get some relief, but then have them tighten up again later.

So at some point I went on to other approaches till finally in 2014 I came upon this dental stuff. And it completely changed the game.

But today let me tell you some of my views/theories on what trigger points are and how they work.

What are trigger points?

Trigger points, often referred to as myofascial trigger points, are hyperirritable spots located in taut bands of skeletal muscle fibers or in the fascia surrounding muscles.

They are commonly associated with chronic pain syndromes and are characterized by the following features:

1. Localized Tenderness: Trigger points are painful when pressed, and the pain can sometimes radiate to other areas (referred pain). For example, a trigger point in the neck might cause headaches.

2. Referred Pain Patterns: Unlike general muscle soreness, trigger points often produce pain in regions distant from their location. These patterns are consistent and have been mapped by practitioners.

3. Muscle Tightness: A trigger point can cause persistent muscle tightness or stiffness, contributing to reduced range of motion.

4. Taut Bands: Trigger points form within taut bands of muscle, which can often be felt as a knot or lump beneath the skin.

What do they believe causes them?

The common understanding is that trigger points are typically caused by muscle overuse, repetitive strain, poor posture, or acute injuries. Stress and lack of adequate movement can also contribute to their formation.

How do they say that you get rid of them?

Trigger point therapy involves manual pressure, stretching, or other methods (e.g., dry needling or massage) to deactivate the points, alleviate referred pain, and restore normal muscle function.

The workbook by Clair Davies goes a lot into where the trigger points are and where they refer pain/tightness to.

The book basically encourages you to poke around looking for these spots and then press into them and hold for 30-90 seconds till the pain goes away. Then you stretch the area a bit.

And guess what? It actually works! Or at least it often works. And you feel more relaxed and released afterwards.

But it is pretty time consuming. And it’s hard to get certain spots on the back for example.

The problem is… that within a couple of days they’re all back. And I never felt like I was making any true progress.

I was just repeating the same thing on the same spots over and over again.

My trigger point experiments in the mouth

In 2015-17 I was deep into this dental game. I’d started with Starecta but was also dabbling with Myobrace, ALF, and flat plane splints.

Plus I’d gotten in the habit of dabbing a stick into my mouth in the painful spots. Typically i used the back of my toothbrush.

And i was using the same philosophy as my old trigger point days. I’d find a painful spot and then hold till it went away.

I’d spend hours doing this in the mouth. There seemed to be tons of trigger points in my mouth…. both under the tongue and in the back near the ears.

And when i’d push and hold they would eventually let go, which felt really good. I’d even see improvements in my complexion.

I was starting to learn how the soft tissue worked.

Eureka! Releasing trigger points in the mouth changes your occlusion

I also started to test to see if this had any impact on the dental contacts on my tracking splint. And noticed it did.

Hmmmm interesting. So releasing these trigger points in the mouth changes your occlusion. I was onto something :)

You can read about what a tracking splint is here:

A 'tracking splint' is the compass for your TMJ journey

This essentially became the foundation for how i developed my ‘fast method’ later on. I basically figured out that I didn’t need the stick and there were other faster ways of achieving the same thing.

But if you simply dab a stick into all of the painful spots in your mouth will this accelerate your Reviv process?

YESSSSSSS!!! And that should give you some very important clues into how my fast process works.

If you do not wear a rubber guard…. all of your trigger points come back

As I was experimenting with my tracking splint I was making lots of interesting conclusions at the time.

If i did trigger point therapy in the mouth i’d improve my curve of spee. If i did yoga it would improve my curve of spee. If i saw an osteopath or a massage therapist… same thing!

All of these things accelerated the process.

But… if i left a posterior open bite unsupported or locked the wrong occlusion this would reverse the progress and flatten the curve of spee.

So the only way to hold your gains from doing trigger point therapy was by either wearing a rubber guard (like Reviv One) or a flat plane splint to sleep.

Otherwise all of your hard work goes right down the toilet!

It’s the same reason why i consider yoga a ‘hamster wheel’ of progress unless you’re wearing a rubber mouth guard to sleep. As i wrote in this earlier article.

How I proved that yoga is useless

Closing thoughts

On this recent comment thread the person was talking about how trigger point therapy really helped them. And i can totally get that.

I’m sure it has.

But the question i have is the same question i ask to all these yoga lovers. What happens when you stop doing it?

Are you making any true progress? Or rather are you just repeating the same thing and essentially running in place for years.

And this is where I know i’m going to always end up being right.

Why? Because you DO NOT CHANGE YOUR BODY WITHOUT CHANGING HOW YOUR TEETH COME TOGETHER. Period.

After all the years and experiments i’ve run on myself.. i am very sure of that at this point.

So when someone tells me that they’re gonna do trigger point therapy, or see an osteopath, or do some other type of body work…. I don’t bother arguing. Because i know that they’ll run off and do that for awhile… but then they’ll be back when they finally realize i’m right.

Unlike trigger point therapy these dental biomechanics change the actual structures. Your progress compounds in time.

With Reviv i’m not relaxing the same tight muscles over and over again… i’m completely remodeling the skull and body for good. And getting rid of tightness forever.