TMJ/TMD Therapy: A Testimonial

A TESTIMONIAL FROM A WOMAN WITH PD

I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s September 2009 at age 63 and began seeing Dr. Jennings in February 2011 after attending the Quality of Life conference where he was a speaker. I fly to Oakland from Irvine and his secretary kindly picks me up. I make a fun day out of it, arriving at 8 am and departing at 7 pm with lunch and shopping in either Berkeley or San Francisco.

I feel very fortunate to have found Dr. Jennings and his expertise with Dental Orthopedics. Don’t confuse his treatment with TMJ. In the beginning, this treatment was so new that no one knew what to call it so it was referred to as TMJ. I have had both and the treatment Dr. Jennings offers is completely different.

Improvements I have experienced: clearer thinking with executive conversations with my clients, improved gait and balance, wear 3-inch heels for hours, lots of energy—I still take a nap in the afternoons but don’t have that huge wave of fatigue crashing over me anymore—sense of smell is returning, good facial expression (most people don’t know I have PD), can go through the airport x-ray machine with arms raised above my head, can balance on a big ball to align my spine, more social as I seek out friends, take 2 classes at the community college each semester, sleep deeply and soundly all through the night and wake refreshed… so my Quality of Life has definitely improved under Dr. Jennings’ care.

My neurologist, a movement disorder specialist at a local University, can’t understand why I keep improving on my tests. He says people with Parkinson’s always decline, so why am I improving? I’d take out my appliance and show him, “This is why.” Phase 1, I wore a removable appliance for daytime and a different one at night to correct my bite. With my bite corrected I moved to Phase 2 where I have permanent crowns holding the correct bite in place, but still wear the nighttime appliance.

The treatment is not a complete cure but does a lot for us that we cannot do with exercise and diet. I am an organic vegan, no gluten, no sugar, with two raw meals a day, one cooked meal, alkaline water with minerals added. For exercise I have been doing four hours of Gyrokinesis (See article in PRO’s Newsletter last month) a week for 3-1/2 years, treadmill (twenty minutes at 2.3 mph and swinging my arms for 10-15 minutes out of the 20) and lift weights at the gym (MWF upper body; T TH Sat lower body). I have just added three hours of Qigong a day. I am committed to allowing the body to heal itself.

Once I was sitting in the treatment room next to a woman who also had Parkinson’s. I do not have external tremors, but she did. When the appliance was in her mouth, her leg, arm and hand stopped tremoring. When Dr. Jennings removed the appliance to fine tune it, she started tremoring. He put it back, she stopped. I believe in Dr. Jennings’ experienced touch as my life just gets better and better. And he’s a very nice man!

Meet Dr. Jennings in the Wellness Village.