The body's control system is seen developing during the 4th week of embryonic life. The neural plate folds into a tube which detaches from the general ectoderm and creates the bodily control system as developed from the cells of the neural crest and tube.^22,32,40,42 The neural crest cell derivaties are found throughout the body. Basically they gather information from the outer and inner aspects of the body, and feed it into the neural tube derivaties which are designed to monitor and direct the quadrillions of cells of the united total person.^20,21,32

According to Netter's illustrations²² and embryonic text books,^40-42 the brain and central nervous system develop from the neural tube cells. These "control derivative" cells also form the master pituitary gland, the midnose, premaxilla and four maxillary incisors The neural crest cells produce the balance of the nervous system - the satellite cells, golgi cells, Schwann cells and all sensory receptors; the rest of the hormonal system; and the remaining parts of the dental system, with the exception of the tooth enamel, which is ectodermal in origin.^11,22,23

These three systems, for bodily control, are intimately related in origin, and are associated throughout life in all bodily functions, in health and in disease.^20,21,40,42

Penfield and Rasmussen, a half century ago demonstrated that almost half of both sensory and motor aspects of the brain are devoted to the "dental area." So, approximately half of the programming of the computer-brain, that runs the body, comes from the dental system.^8,11

Interestingly, mix-ups have occurred in the organ development from the embryonic crest and tube cells.⁶⁴ Occasionally a tooth is found in a female endocrinal tumor.

Medical science looks upon the body as being mostly motor. Our findings coincide with Brockman, that the body is mostly sensory.⁹⁰

Mandibular Function
To better understand how the dental system can effect distant bodily alterations in disease and health processes, we must consider the 68 pairs of muscles above and below the mandible.²² Together these 136 muscles determine head, cervical, shoulder and jaw posturization during all of life's functional processes.

Our Dental Research Group of Chicago began studying the functional movements of the mandible during the 1940's.^35,36 This research shed new light on mandibular and condylar movements.²⁹ A student of physics and engineering, Casey Guzay, put our findings into a sophisticated series of drawings entitled, The Quadrant Theorem.²⁸ As determined, the muscle controlled pivotal axis of the mandible occurs at the dens between the atlas and axis vertebrae,^11,13,28,29

Therefore, the mandibular dysfunction effects a disturbing posturing of C1 and C2.¹¹ These vertebrae are intimately related to spinal and head posturing.¹¹ How does the malposturing of these key vertebrae affect the spine and head?

 

Conclusions of the Dental Research Group of Chicago
Under the mentorship of Chet Frank the Dental Research Group of Chicago, beginning in the 1940's and continuing into the 1980's researched mandibular function. Jim Rikertts and others studied head plate x-rays at different openings of the mouth. Jack Stenger used cinefluorography to demonstrate mandibular, condylar, cervical and sot tissue position and motion during function, before and after vertical and support corrections. Fonder did bodily postural studies using full spine x-rays. Casey Guzay, a student of physics, medicine and engineering, put these research findings into a series of drawings entitled The Quandrant Theorem.

 

Fig. 1 The apex of the combined muscular control of the mandible in all functioning movements is located at the dens between the atlas and axis cervical vertebrae.	Fig. 2 When the mouth opens the 136 muscles above and below the mandible pivot the jaw at the xy-axis. The condyle translates forward and downward as the mouth opens.
Fig. 3 When the mandibular teeth occlude above the x-x plane, a pathologic Curve of Spee exists and the head of the condyle moves superiorly and distally.	Fig. 4 If the mandible did actually pivot in the TMJ as has been accepted as fact, the mandibular positioning as herein depicted would be able to occur.
Fig. 5 Motor homunculus illustrating motor representation in Area 4 (anterior central gyrus). (After Penfield and Rasmussen, Cerebral Cortex of Man, The Macmillan Co.)	Fig. 6 Sensory homunculus showing representation in the sensory cortex. (After Penfield and Rasmussen, Cerebral Cortex of Man, The Macmillan Co.)

Posture
 

1. Rene Cailliet, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Director at U.S.C. states: "It's an axiom ... that the body follows the head ... You can realign your entire body by moving your head ... your head held in a forward position can pull your entire body out of line.⁶⁴ He goes on to explain that the vital lung capacity is reduced as much as 30%. The gastrointestinal system is affected, particularly the large intestine. When a hunched position is assumed, the body becomes rigid, and range of motion is affected. Since endorphin production is reduced, an increase in pain and discomfort results.
2. Kapandji, in his classic text on spinal function states, "The anterior muscles of the neck ... act as the long arm of a lever ... they are powerful flexors of the head and cervical column ... flattening the cervical column."⁶⁷
3. Numerous investigators describe the effect of altered mandibular position on cranial posture.^{10,13,23,31,53} forward and lateral head position changes the mandible, hyoid bone, and tongue.^73,76 It compresses the upper cervical facet joints causing muscular nerve entrapments.²³ Nerve root compression or posterior vertebral facet irritation or restriction result in peripheral entrapment neuropathies.^77-80 One common entrapment is the greater or lesser suboccipital nerves that pass between the occiput and atlas.²⁰ This may cause headaches or refer pain to the facial region.⁸¹
4. Concentrating on the cervical apophyseal joints, we observe the role of the mechanoreceptors that dominate the vestibular system in relation to the reflex regulation of static posture and gait.^82,83 If you place a cervical collar, it may cause the patient to stagger or lose positive control of the extremeties.⁸⁴ The density of mechanoreceptors in the human are greater in the cervical apophyseal joints than in other levels of the vertebral column.⁶³ Cervical abnormal functions in aged people produce subjective and objective disturbances of posture and gait, known as senile dysequilibrium.^85,86
5. The cervical mechanoreceptors also have a potent effect on eye control, speech, and manual dexterity.^63,85

Minutes after physiologically balanced molar support is provided at the proper vertical the head, shoulder, spine, and pelvic posturization begins normalization.³¹ The blood flow to the head, hands, and feet doubles and even quadruples when measured volumetrically as well as thermally and colorimetrically.⁸⁹ Chronic scalp and leg sores of many years duration that have not responded to conventional medical care heal in a matter of a couple of weeks (improved blood supply).^10-31 Psoriasis, asthma, constipation, PMS, and numerous etiology unknowns normalize quite routinely, if the disease(s) have not progressed beyond the point of no return.^10,88

This research has been replicated by the Russian,³⁹ Japanese,^12,13 German, Canadian, American and other individual medical and dental scientists, dental groups and medico-dental research teams.^14,15 The Japanese medico-dental research team of fifteen specialists treated over 6,000 patients who had not responded to conventional medical care. (Dr. Maehara, the group leader, says that his success rate is 90% when proper dental support is provided.) These cases included Parkinson, epilepsy and all of the above.¹³

 

DDS patients complain of headache, dizziness, hearing loss, depression, worrying, nervousness, forgetfulness, suicidal tendencies, insomnia, sinusitis, fatigue, indigestion, constipation, ulcers, dermatitis, allergies, frequent urination, kidney and bladder complications, cold hands and feet, body pains and numbness and a host of sexual failures and gynecological problems. Elimination of the DDS reverses these chronic problems, the body chemistry and blood picture normalize. Even backward students when treated rapidly advance in classroom productivity often becoming honor students.

A growing entourage of health professionals now accept the fact that Dental Distress is the dominant stressor of the body and that a host of medical etiology unknowns will be understood when dental and medical researchers unite, for Selye's GAS (Selye, 1936, 1956, 1974) and Fonders^108-111 DDS (Fonder, 1965, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1973) are one and the same syndromes.

According to the late A.B. Leeds, (Leeds, 1955, 1977) an internationally known physician, who devoted four hours daily for study throughout his entire medical career, who pioneered in orthomolecular and bio-medics in the 1940's, introduced the Menninger brothers to psychiatric medicine, at an advanced age was made the chief consultant to the American Armed Forces in World War II, consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission, tended Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Patton, Stalin and other international figures, then spent the final decade of his life researching over 120 chronically ill patients in collaboration with a dental colleague, the late Willie May, to quote, "When this treatment is fully researched and understood, it will be capable of revising every diagnosis, treatment procedure and prognosis in the medical world." Other statements of this medical intellectual are, "This is the greatest treatment of chronic symptoms that I have come across in over fifty years of medical practice;" "This will be a focus around which all modalities in the medical world can begin to agree" and "If this treatment is done at middle age, it should extend life at least ten years."^91-94

When Leeds came to May for dental treatment and was exposed to this removal of stress, he had to pause once or twice in completing a sentence. He was so revitalized after a few weeks that he doubled his patient load. As physicians and dentists observed May in his dental treatment, Leeds would give a medical commentary on why these bizarre symptoms were present in the stressed patient and why they disappeared when normal jaw posture was provided, voiding the DDS.

Spinal Posture
The importance of such a balanced relationship of dental structures cannot be overemphasized. There is a reciprocal relationship between jaw posture and spinal posture - a condition upon which body comfort and health are dependent (Fonder, 1965, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1973; Khoroshilkina, et al,¹⁰¹ 1964). The correctness or incorrectness of either of these postures seriously affects the functioning of the other.

The jaws, the teeth and their supporting tissues, the muscles of mastication, and the temporomandibular joint are all components of the masticatory system. However, these are not the only structures necessary for such activities as speech, respiration, chewing and swallowing. Whole systems of muscles in the head, neck and shoulder girdle are also affected by these actions. In the neck, the hyoid bone forms another integral part of the dental mechanism. On a smaller scale, the hyoid bone resembles the U-shaped mandible, and together with the mandible and the anterior part of the shoulder girdle, forms a series of bow-shaped structures with interconnecting musculature. This musculature works in conjunction with the musculature above the mandible, and together the two create a suspensory apparatus that controls mandibular function and aids in head balance.

Besides the hyoid mechanism, the neck contains vital circulatory vessels, the the trachea, larynx, and thyroid and crioid cartilages with their accompanying musculature. Taken together, these structures provide a link between the head and chest systems. Therefore, if there is maladjustment of any of these structures because of incorrect positioning or functioning of the mandible, reactions will be visible in the interruption of proper function in swallowing, speech, hearing, breathing and other processes.

Feedback
It must be emphasized that each movement of the dental mechanism reinforces the previous patterns registered in the brain. When we consider that approximately half of the sensory and motor cortices of the brain are devoted to the oro-facial area (Penfield & Rasmussen, 1966¹⁰⁴) the significance of the accuracy of the feedback information that is stored in the computerized brain and used in asserting functional commands to the entire body gains in importance. Also, let us consider that the facial muscles of expression accurately and instantaneously register happiness, anger, fear, elation, animosity, love, hatred, sadness, pain, sickness and all attitudes of the body. If there are malalignments in the oro-facial mechanism, the impulse patterns will transmit stressful messages, eventually to all parts of the body. Clearing up these pathological impulses through the correction of the mandibular posture problem offers possibilities for the elimination of many chronic and seemingly unrelated conditions. Distress can be replaced by eustress so that the GAS can build up body tissues, heal previous injury, and even retard the aging process, since all structures are now functioning with only the stresses for which they were designed.

We swallow twice a minute when awake and once every minute during sleep. If we subjected the teeth to only one pound of pressure per square inch with each act of swallowing the dental structures would absorb approximately one ton of intermittent pressure daily. However, the average person exerts at least three and one half pounds of pressure during swallowing, while the habitual clamper and nocturnal bruxer far exceed this norm (Garliner, 1973¹⁰³). So stressful malocclusion results in many tons of intermittent dental distress, in erroneous feedback, that constantly upsets the balance of the body's systems until the dentist intervenes. Such is the importance of the stimulus sent out by the chewing mechanism that one physician's study (Leeds, 1977^93,94 stated that if an individual made sure his dental structures were in correct order by middle age, he could look forward to approximately ten additional productive years.

The 1973 Nobel Prize In Medicine and Physiology
Dentistry and medicine should take notice of the research work of Tinbergen, ⁹⁵ winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology. His paper read before the Nobel dignitaries December 12, 1973 is associated with dental stress findings. Nobel laureate Tinbergen (1973) refers to Alexander's (1932)⁹⁸ normalization of body musculature. By removing poor-posture-distress a variety of somatic and psychic illnesses are thereby eliminated. Barlow (1973)⁹⁷ describes the successes of Alexander's pupils as the "rag bag" of rheumatism, arthritis, respiratory problems, asthma, high blood pressure, circulation defects, heart conditions, gastrointestinal disorders, gynecological conditions, sexual failures, migraine, depressions, depth of sleep, overall cheerfulness, mental alertness, resilience against outside pressures, refined manual skills and a wide spectrum of disease, both somatic and psychic.⁹⁸

John Dewey (1932)⁹⁹ stresses the importance of Alexander's therapy as does Aldous Huxley (1937)¹⁰² and more convincingly such renowned scientists as Coghill¹⁰⁵ (1971, Dart¹⁰⁶ (1974) and the great neurophysiologist Sherrington¹⁰⁸ (1946).

Recent neurophysical discoveries make the Alexander therapy more plausible such as the key concept of reafference, the discovery of van Holst and Mittlestaedt¹⁰⁷ ((1950).

Tinbergen and others are searching for the primary cause of bad posture. The physiologic dentist has long known that spinal posture and upper respiratory problems are routinely present in the patient who has maloccluded teeth and that conditions normalize when this dental distress is elininated.^2-14