Pelvis Restoration will be presented for the first time on October 9-10 in Minneapolis. Lori Thomsen discusses the course and what you can expect.

**To review the exercise technique mentioned below, click here!

I was reviewing the blog section and I saw that the Standing Serratus Stomatognathic Squat can be used to determine bite position.  When I took The Cervical-Cranio-Mandibular Restoration course, we did not discuss this technique.  Could you give me some information?

The first picture is taken with her weight through her heels and her scapulas supported by the wall.  Her levator scapulaes, upper traps and SCM’s are relaxed.  Her thoracic lumbar and cervical lordosis will be placed in the end range of her normal lordotic range of these 2 areas of her spine.  Her teeth should be able to make uniform contact on both sides of her mouth and through the posterior teeth. 

The last picture shows the end range of normal thoracic and cranial flexion.  She should be able to touch her teeth evenly on both sides and through her posterior teeth.  If she cannot feel uniform closure in both of these positions she may need a splint to re-orient or support her occlusion and cervical-cranial imbalances. 

An open bite on one side is indicative of possible frontal plane asymmetry at the cranium or cervical spine.

If she can’t touch front teeth together (incisor to incisor and then close with good posterior molar contact and then back to incisor to incisor, etc) in the first or last position as reflected by the above 1st and last pictures, cranial mandibular, cranial cervical and cranial thoracic muscle cannot rest during resting bite, regardless of cranial or cervical position or the degree of cranial or cervical flexion or extension. 

This is why I did not talk about this bite issue in great detail.  It will be reviewed and discussed in greater detail at the Orthognathic Dentistry and PRI integration course this fall.

We received this article from Brad Runia.  Brad recently attended the Cervical-Cranio-Mandibular Restoration course and thought the Institute would find this article interesting. 

“Recently, several investigators have reported that mastication produces an antinociceptive effect.  The present results support our hypothesis that the rhythmic behavior of chewing suppresses nociceptive responses via the serotonergic neurons descending inhibitory pathway.”

Prolonged rhythmic gum chewing suppresses nociceptive response via serotonergic descending inhibitory pathway in humans is the title of the article.  You can read it HERE!

We received these QUESTIONS regarding the video and shoe recommendation for PEC:

Are you trying to pronate the feet?
How does this affect the extension tone?

ANSWER: When someone is in a PEC position their pelvis is forward, hips are in ER, and they are in a supinated position. The video was used to demonstrate that by allowing the patient to get in a more pronated position it assisted her to inhibit extensor tone and shift in her hips to be neutral.  Remember we don’t want our patients to be supinated or pronated…we want them to be somewhere in the middle during mid-stance phase of gait.  In the video, the patient was in a supinated position with the Asics Foundation due to weak glutes.  Allowing her to pronate more with a less supportive shoe allowed her to stay neutral in her pelvis.  She still needs glute work. Some PEC patients can overly pronate and have laxity with their feet too. - Lori Thomsen