Is this addressing root cause or just symptoms?
I am very confident we are addressing root cause and in this article I will explain why.
Someone in the community brought up a good question lately and I thought it would be useful to discuss as a blog post.
The question was… is wearing a rubber mouthguard like a Reviv One just addressing symptoms or is it addressing root cause?
And in my head it is so obvious that it addresses root cause as i’ve been in this game for so long.. but I understand that most folks have not experienced or witnessed what I have and have no reason to just “take my word for it”.
So let’s discuss this a bit today and i’ll give my point of view.
What happens when you wear a rubber mouthguard?
Most folks go through very similar things in the initial stages.
They have some pain in their gums or teeth and many folks have some headaches. This is the ‘hard part’.
But they often also start to feel things improve.
They start to feel chronic pain or tightness in various parts of their body decrease.
They start to feel clearer, particulary if they had brain fog
Some start to sleep better
And other things start to improve
But is this just improvement in symptoms?
After all taking pills or going to a body worker like a chiropractor can probably achieve similar things sometimes.
So are they both just addressing symptoms?
In my view the answer to that is no. And that is because progress compounds.
Whereas when you’re only addressing symptoms, progress does not compound. Rather the opposite typically occurs.
You typically repeat the same stuff again and again and the effect gets less and less.
You’re not making more progress the more you do, you’re making less. With pharmaceuticals like painkillers, for example, you often start to develop an immunity and you need to take more to have the same effect.
Which is why I call all of these methods that address only symptoms the ‘Hamster wheel’. You just go in circles and even as you go faster and invest more effort in those methods… you are only ever moving in place.
When you address root cause, progress compounds
So this is my differentiation between determining whether something is just addressing symptoms or addressing root cause.
And i’d like you to think about how these biomechanics work because things clearly do compound over time.
These past three years are a good example. I’ve been improving since late 2021 till today and I’m still not done.
But in 2022 I functioned a lot better than I did in 2021.
In 2023 I functioned a lot better than i did in 2022.
And now in 2024 I function a lot better than i did in 2023.
And when i say “function”… I am saying that i am better physically, neurologically, and cognitively.
I’ve also sort of tried to measured certain things… for example my attention span has gone from 5-10 minutes back in early 2021 to often being able to focus for 2-3 hours at a time.
My strength has also increased each year. And without lifting any weights. It just feels easier to do everything.
Also, I would say the same is true of my son, my wife and the folks from my first test group.
I’m also very confident that for the folks that are doing Reviv now… if they stick with it things will compound for them as well.
Not some of them. All of them.
How are we addressing root cause with this process?
I won’t get into the details here as i’ve talked about this a lot in previous posts but basically we are reversing the biomechanical collapse process.
By stretching the soft tissue with the mouthguard, we are allowing the skull to ‘inflate’ and the cranial bones to return to symmetry.
We’re also reversing the collapse process on the entire skeleton and thus allowing the organs to also revert to their normal function.
This is not a process of just patching things temporarily… this is a process of putting humpty dumpty back together again for good.
At the end you need to address a posterior open bite
So this is something that everyone needs to be very clear on when they start the process. It creates a posterior open bite over time.
Why? Because you are improving the curve of spee and that lifts the upper back teeth up vis-a-vis the lower teeth. Thus creating the open bite in the molars area.
And in my view the ONLY WAY THAT YOU STRUCTURALLY IMPROVE is by creating this curve of spee.
Anyone that claims to permanently improve structure via a process that does not improve the curve of spee is full of shit in my view. And i’m happy to be challenged and have people propose examples of this.
Because i pay attention to this for a long time and am very confident in this assertion.
It is why i say that you do not improve your body structure without changing how the teeth come together. The two come hand in hand.
Is this posterior open bite a ticking time bomb that is going to create problems?
Absolutely not. As long as you support it when sleeping by either continuing to wear the rubber mouthguard or eventually having flat composite be put on your molars.
I talk about that in this post so i won’t go into details here:
And what happens if you decide to stop wearing the mouthguard and let the posterior open bite close on its own?
Simple.. you will reverse all of the progress you made till you are about where you were before starting wearing your Reviv. And that reversal will happen pretty fast in my experience.
Closing thoughts
In this article I address the question of whether Reviv only addresses symptoms or in fact addresses root cause.
And I talk about how my definition is that if progress compounds you are addressing root cause and not symptoms.
And for Reviv, that will be the case for everyone that sticks with it.
But it does mean that you will create an open posterior bite that you need to continue to support.
Which either means continuing to wear your rubber mouthguard, which is honestly, not going to be much of a problem at that point as you’ll be very accustomed to it.
Or you find a dentist willing to put flat composite on your back teeth. As i did with my son three years ago. And as one older man from my first test group did almost two years ago (and loves).
Or you can always just say “screw that…. i’m not going to create an open posterior bite… I would rather allow my skeleton and skull to collapse and deal with whatever that entails.”
I definitely won’t be one of those :)
Thank you for the discussion. I think I see it a little more clearly now. I wanted to understand more before I placed my order because $100 is a big chunk of change for me. I don't want to lose my money on a dupe. Now I do have a better picture of why it works like it does so I'm ready to take the leap. Thanks, everyone, for your input.
So one more thing if you wore the mouthguard and over time it fixed the curve of spee then it should stay permanently or let’s say it’s like a certain vitamin your body needs but it doesn’t make that vitamin, you could supplement that vitamin and change what you are deficient in but until you figure out the reason your body is deficient in, you are addressing the symptom and when you stop you will revert back to being deficient in it. I probably sound redundant . I’m trying to grasp this