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From:  "Vale [^_^]" <valevanni@m...>
"Vale [^_^]" <valevanni@m...>
Date:  Mon Jan 1, 2001  8:40 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Re: Resonance and Tone Color


On Mon, 1 Jan 2001 14:45:50
Caio Rossi wrote:

>Interesting perspective. I'm wearing a mouth guard now that I'm supposed to
>have on 24 hours a day. It's name is Bionator. It's supposed to reteach me
>how to swallow and use all the other speech-related muscles so as to work on
>all the problems at the same time ( speech, jaw tension, etc ). Very
>interesting concept ( I've described that privately to Valle, but it was
>before a computer crash so I've lost the long description I sent. Valle, if
>you're reading this and have kept it, can you post it here please? )


Yes, I saved your post!

----------------------------------------------------------------
Vale Wrote:
> Let's say that I have a bad sleep quality (I have some difficult to fall
>asleep and I wake up tensed and anguished).
>
> Locking up? It happens bit, when the opening is wide.
> About the noise, I have clicks, double-clicks... worse than Windows ;-)
> The movement is not straight: a bit toward left, a bit toward right..
> Perhaps rhinitis (light but chronic). Perhaps it's so cronic that I
>usually don't consider to have it (now that I think, my nose is always
>partially closed).
> And (other chronic thing, that I usually don't consider to have) inside my
>throat there is an excess of mucus (perhaps it's said "flu") and I have to
>clear very frequently.
> Perhaps during the laringoscopy it was a good day (for the mucus), and the
>ENT did not notice anything wrong.
> What do you think after having seen my answers?


And Caio replied:
We have some similar problems: I don't sleep very well, and I wake up tense
too; my jaw doesn't lock but moves to one side when wide open too. I have
rhinitis; my nose is always partially closed; I have excessive mucus in my
throat and the ENT also said it was not that serious.

I forgot to ask you if you notice any physical pain or pressure in your jaw,
head, palate and/or in the shoulders. Also, ( it may sound as completely out
of the context, but ) how often and how long were you breastfed when a baby?

I think you should look for a good orthodontist. It seems to be the same
problem I have: the name in English is TJM, although there is another
problem which is very similar but, of course, has another name. That
problem is not very well known by speech therapists and ENTs ( at least in
Brazil ), so orthodontists are generally the only professionals who can
diagnose that. Here goes the explanation ( believe it or not ):

One of the most important things for a baby is to be breastfed. During that
period, the baby is not only fed with milk, but does also develop the
coordination necessary for suction, mastication and deglutition. As when the
baby is in the mother it's fed not only through the mouth, but also through
the nose ( it swallows and expells aminiotic liquid until it's born ), the
moment of birth is the very first moment when the child starts breathing
through the nose and will start being fed exclusively through the mouth.

And the baby will learn to do that by sucking the mother's breast: it forces
the child to breathe in and out through the nose and to develop the muscles
related to those 3 functions mentioned above ( suction, mastication and
deglutition ). But the problem is even more complex: those very same muscles
are also the ones involved in speech. Also, if the baby does not develop the
habit of breathing through the nose the air in the sinus cavities will not
be constantly renewed, so colonies of bacteria will develop there causing
allergic rhinitis, sinusitis, etc. The lack of development of those muscles
( including the ones in the jaw ) will make its opening unbalanced and will
produce those 'cracks' you hear: they are not normal, although they 'sound'
harmless. Breathing through the mouth also causes the person to have an
incorrect development of the teeth and hard palate ( which is sometimes too
high, leaving little space in the sinus cavities ). That incorrect
development may lead to occlusive problems that will make your mouth open
incorrectly.

And more: if you have a problem to breathe through the nose, even if you
force the air in and out through it while you're awake, it won't happen when
you're asleep. So, you'll stay about 8 hours every night breathing through
your mouth, what forces it to be in a tense position AND accumulates
bacteria and pollution in the sinus cavities. Those bacteria proliferate at
an astounding rate, so in the end of the night you'll have not only a
colony, but a civilization of bacteria, with buildings, roads, bridges, etc.
Then, waht do you do: you close your mouth and take a deep breath through
your nose ... and your lungs are presented with an Atlantida of bacteria at
once! It reacts by not taking in much air, and then you have problems to
breathe.

Also ( just to make you scared enough to rush to an orthodontist's office ):
as you can't move your jaw freely and not even get enough air through your
nose while you're eating, the food may not be properly masticated, since you
have to get rid of it as soon as possible in order to take air in, so it is
swallowed without being properly chewed and it causes over production of
acid in the stomach. That may lead to reflux, which causes that sensation of
mucus ( in fact, acid ) in the larynx.

A speech pathologist may not be helpful because they don't treat the cause
of the problem, only the effects. I looked for the best speech pathologist
in Sco Paulo and it was not helpful. I couldn't articulate words well. They
gave me those exercises that you have to talk with a cork in the mouth and,
after about 2 months of therapy, I started feeling pain in the jaw and
couldn't even bite an apple.

When my therapy was over, I looked for a singing teacher who was also a
speech pathologist. She noticed I had that problem in the jaw and referred
me to an orthodontist she worked with. She had also had the same problem. As
that orthodontist works only with extremely weathy people ( businessmen,
famous artists, etc ), he was too expensive, so I decided to look for
another one, who's my present orthodontist and explained everything I told
you above. I double checked that information with a friend of mine who's a
dentist and he confirmed that.

My orthodontist follows a German school that created a mouth guard called
Bionator. It forces you to breathe through the nose and develop those
muscles not developed at an earlier age ( those problems are generally
caused by no or little breastfeeding, which is my case, but not necessarily
solely but that ). I prefer that, because typical braces ( which I'll put on
as soon as Bionator retrains me ) won't reeducate you, and that's the reason
why most people who wear braces only have to wear them again after sometime,
since your teeth will move back to their previous position if you don't
start doing things right again. I double-checked that too: there are
thousands of sites on Bionator on the net, but most of them are in German.





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