NEW RELEASE and EXCERPT
The Orthodontic Cure:
How Orthodontics can Restore You to Optimal Health, Stop Bed Wetting, Cure Migraines and Save Lives
by Dr. Sheila Birth
Sheila Birth, orthodontist and author, stops by today to share an excerpt from her new book, The Orthodontic Cure.
Description
Orthodontics can change your life! Orthodontics provides key pieces of the puzzle for total body health.
What? Isn't orthodontics just braces and straight teeth? Actually Orthodontics is much more than straight teeth. Orthodontics is the only profession, medical or dental, that can change skeletal structure without surgery.
Orthodontists can expand the upper palate and move the lower jaw forward with simple orthodontic appliances. When orthodontists do these skeletal changes, they also affect the airways. Orthodontist can improve airways and improve breathing. Breathing is everything. Breathing is life. Problems with breathing can lead to poor performance in school, at work and in athletics. Problems with breathing can lead to snoring and sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can be life threatening, as it affects sleep, cardiac function, blood pressure, mental function and much more.
Your teeth are important for nutrition and communication (smiling is universal). If your teeth are out of alignment, it can lead to clenching and grinding, with the brain subconsciously trying to grind these teeth into position. Grinding and clenching affect the muscles, the muscles develop triggers or knots that lead to jaw pain, TMJ pain, muscle pain, and persistent headaches and migraines.
I am writing this book so that patients can quit suffering. There are simple orthodontic solutions that do not involve drugs, injections or surgery. I want to get the word out to people that have been suffering for years, taking drugs that are masking the pain, but not curing it. I am writing this book in hopes that other orthodontist can appreciate what they can do to make their patients healthy. All orthodontists can use the many tools that they have to improve their patients' lives.
Excerpt
Hang on, life is a ride. A ride that only God knows where you are going. I look back at different events in my life and years later say, "Oh that is why that happened. I built on that bad or good event to arrive at where I am at this moment." Thank you God for the path you chose for me. I love what I do, and where I am.
My goal is that by you reading this book, you will look back and say years later…I am so glad that I read that book--it really set a path of better health for the whole family."
Did I always want to be an Orthodontist? I did not. Didn't even think about it. Never was evaluated by an Orthodontist until I was 27 and in Dental School. I was then told during a rotation at Baylor Dental School that I would need surgery (where the surgeon would actually break my palate) to better align my palate with my face.
Wow, why wasn’t something done when I was younger and still growing? My mother, who was a very smart lady, took me to our general dentist when I was 10 years old, asking for a referral to an orthodontist for a "gummy smile"—meaning showing too much gum when you smile. My dentist said my teeth were perfect and nothing could be done about the "gummy smile" and did not refer us to an orthodontist. Now this was in the 70s, when people believed every word their dentist said, so I never visited an orthodontic office until I was already in dental school. By then it was too late— if I had seen an orthodontist, instead of a general dentist—the orthodontist would have been able to change growth and reduce the gummy smile. When I was older, I was given the option of surgery to reduce the gummy smile. So orthodontics was not my passion when I was growing up, buy became my passion when I was at Baylor College of Dentistry.
THIS IS SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER AND I WILL PROBABLY SAY IT MORE THAN ONCE. AN ORTHODONTIST, IS THE ONLY SPECIALISTS—DENTAL OR MEDICAL—THAT CAN CHANGE THE SKELETAL PATTERN OF THE FACE AND MOUTH. The specialty degree that we receive is actually in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics. Dentofacial Orthopedics is actually modifiying the skeletal structure of the teeth and face. For the sake of simplicity, I am just going to say the specialty of Orthodontics, but the Orthopedic part of this specialty is amazing.
I became an Orthodontist using a circuitous path. I really wanted to be a scientist--a chemist in fact. I went to a small college in the Texas Panhandle, called West Texas State University and received a chemistry degree. I then moved to Dallas and got a job working as a chemist working in an analytical lab in a semiconductor plant. What I learned in this job is that small details are critical. If the chemical mixtures were not exact, the semi-conductors did not work and hence the computers would not work. This was a very important lesson to learn early in my path to becoming an orthodontist--small details matter. With a tooth being off just one tenth of a millimeter, it can do damage to the teeth, the joints and overall body health. We will talk about this in more detail when we talk about TruDenta treatment in Chapter 7.
So on to the path, I just really didn't like working in the lab—there was not enough contact with people. So I thought marketing might be my niche. I got a job with Celanese Chemical, marketing in their new products division. Well, here is where the paths start to connect and lead in a purposeful direction. So even though I did learn much information from Celanese, I changed paths again because there just was too much travel involved.
It sounds like I am hard to please. In fact, it sounds like Goldilocks and the three bears. It's too cold, it's too hot. That job doesn't have enough people contact, that job has too much travel—what a whiner. But I finally did find a profession that was "just right"—thanks to my job in chemical marketing. I marketed a chemical, a multifunction acrylate—say that 3 times—I bet you can't. This chemical was used in dental bonding adhesives and in the placement of braces. So because of this crazy sounding chemical, I became interested in dentistry and I applied to dental school and was blessed to get into Baylor College of Dentistry.
Next the road led me to the University of Oklahoma for specialty training in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics. Go Sooners! The Sooners actually won the national championship when I was there in 1986. The year before I saw a classic game with many young players that went on to be big stars. Jimmy Johnson was coaching Miami. Barry Switzer was coaching Oklahoma. Troy Aikman was quarterback for Oklahoma and Michael Irvin was wide receiver for Miami. These players and coaches all came to play with the Dallas Cowboys. I am a big Cowboy fan. What was even more important in this game was that Troy Aikman broke his leg. You know Aikman wasn't happy at the time, but I think that broken leg changed his life. Oklahoma was a wishbone team with little or no passing. After the broken leg, UCLA picked up Aikman and he got to show off his fabulous passing arm. So in hind sight, breaking his leg at the University of Oklahoma changed Troy's life and mine because I love Troy Aikman and the Dallas Cowboys.
The University of Oklahoma sat on a beautiful health science campus in Oklahoma City. The Dental School sat next door to the medical school, and we took classes with the medical students, which really opens your mind to the fact that orthodontics is much more than straight teeth. I want to thank Dr. Nanda and Dr. Courier for having an open mind (another purposeful pathway). In fact Dr. Ram Nanda works so hard to promote the science of orthodontics, he is now willing to lecture about cases he would treat differently now. We will get into this in a different chapter. Dr. Nanda and Dr. Courier allowed me into their program, and I was the first female to graduate from the University of Oklahoma's Orthodontic program. Dr. Nanda and Dr. Courier are heroes in my life.
I always had a love of science, physics, chemistry, engineering and medicine. Orthodontics incorporates all of these fields and I feel blessed to be an Orthodontist.
I am so thankful that I didn't stay in chemistry, or marketing or sales—you bet. But I used all those past experiences in my orthodontic practice today.
I am glad my path led to Orthodontics, it is the greatest profession in the world. It is the best fit for me—it gives me a purpose every day, and I am thankful.
Orthodontics affects people's lives in so many ways—not just straight teeth. Dental facial orthopedics, another branch of Orthodontics, changes skeletal structure without surgery.
[Want more? Click below to read a longer excerpt.]
Praise for the Book
"This book is written for the lay reader and explains the root causes of many ordinary health problems. The writing style is in the 'Goldilocks zone', meaning it's neither too technical nor too general. In fact, I myself have several of the problems that Dr. Birth asserts can be helped with The Orthodontic Cure - tinnitus, jaw pain, sleep apnea, and vertigo. The author provides clear descriptions and illustrations of the functions of facial and neck muscles and nerves, all in a way that makes perfect sense to me. I'm sold." ~ Linda
"This book by Dr. Birth is very insightful. I felt like she was directly talking to me. I am anxious to share the book with family members, friends and even my clients. I want everyone to know the possibilities of feeling better are real. This book was an easy read filled with humor but with a big educational message. I was really in the dark about the new world of orthodontics. I hope that other doctors are following in the footsteps of Dr. Birth!" ~ Amazon Customer
"A great read! Dr. Birth did a great job helping the reader understand the potential for orthodontic solutions to a surprising number of everyday health issues. Her entertaining writing style links her many life experiences to the innovations she is using to expand the way we think of orthodontics. I strongly urge those that suffer from debilitating migraines to learn about a drug-free solution discussed in the book. Phenomenal !!!" ~ LeAnn T.
"Dr. Birth is very knowledgeable and provides so much insight into the world of orthodontics. I really learned a lot from this educational read, and I would trust Dr. Birth with my own orthodontic health!" ~ L. A. B. Peace
"This book is absolutely amazing!! It is not only educational but VERY interesting. I would HIGHLY recommend the book! You would certainly not regret it. It is very knowledgeable and easy to understand. LOVE, LOVE, IT!!" ~ Amazon Customer
About the Author
Orthodontics is my passion. I believe it's one of the best professions in the world, and I am honored to know that each day I am able to make a difference in someone's life. Every smile is important to me, and I enjoy giving patients a beautiful smile they can live with for the rest of their lives. Seeing the changes that my patients go through when they achieve a beautiful and functional smile is the reason I became an orthodontist.
Thanks to advances in technology, I am truly excited to be able to help patients with chronic headaches, migraines, tinnitus and vertigo. It is a joy to my team and me to be able to help these patients who may have been suffering from these symptoms for years or even decades. Our drug and needle free system has helped hundreds of patients literally change their lives and live pain free.
I received my Bachelor's Degree from West Texas State University, my Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Baylor College of Dentistry and my Masters Degree in Orthodontics from the University of Oklahoma.
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