1) Saw a doctor to check for ear issues- She sent me to a dentist thinking it was TMJ that was causing the problem.
2) Saw my dentist- he made a $700 lower mouth guard for me to wear at night to help my TMJ. He didn't listen when I told him that my nose doesn't work (a whole different problem!) and I don't clench my teeth at night because I breathe out of my mouth.
3) Maximized Living Chiropractor- thought my messed up neck was causing the problem. $700 and several adjustments later...still in pain
4) Craniofacial Specialist- Thought I needed a $1100 upper mouth guard to protect my jaw from clenching at night. Again, failed to listen to me when I told him I don't clench my teeth. Also found a cyst in my nose that needed to be fixed which led me to...
5) ENT Doctor- Thought my jaw pain was from my body correcting itself to help me breathe better through my nose that doesn't work. Cyst was no big deal but told me I needed a procedure to scrape the insides of my nose to create more breathing room so I wouldn't try to continue correcting it. OUCH.
So, after all of these appointments I had officially given up and decided that I was going to just deal with the pain and live with it forever. Who needs to eat?!?
Then my mom told me about this practice called Nutrition Response Testing. My grandmother, aunt, and uncle had just completed several months with a NRT doctor and had seen amazing results for their issues using natural treatments and the body's own energy. In order to find your body's weaknesses, the doctor places one hand on various parts of your body (where your brain, liver, heart, thyroid, etc. are) and uses the other hand to push down on your extended arm while you're laying down. If you can resist against them pushing down on you, then your body is strong in that area; if you can't then it's a weakness that needs to be corrected. (You can read more about this practice here.) Sounds nutso, right?!? I was VERY skeptical but I promised my mom that I would find a doctor that did this testing, and would follow through with the treatment (at least, if she paid for it!) so that I could see if it would work. I figured it would be better than wearing a mouth guard for the rest of my life or having surgery so I gave it a shot. But, because I was lucky enough to inherit my father's stubbornness, I was planning all along to not let that lady push my arm down!
At my appointment, I was tested for all different parts of my body. When she came to my jaw, thyroid, liver, kidneys, bladder, and heart, my arm literally felt like I had lost every muscle in them. I was trying as hard as I could to resist against her and I just couldn't do it. She easily pushed my arm to the table as if I weren't pushing back at all! So many weak areas- YIKES! The two areas that were the affected the worst were my jaw and thyroid so she then tested those areas for 5 main stressors- scars, food sensitivities, immune challenges, environmental stressors, metal stressors- to figure out what was causing this weakness. Well, she determined that I have a food sensitivity to gluten, wheat, grains and dairy....something I already knew. But the biggest revelation from the appointment was that my jaw was being weakened by high levels of nickel. I've heard of people having mercury and lead in their systems from dental work but I have perfect teeth and haven't ever needed a filling! We brainstormed for a bit and then I remembered that after I had my braces removed in high school, the orthodontist had put in a permanent retainer to keep my top teeth in place. It wasn't one of those fancy retainers that come in different colors with glitter on them but was literally just a metal bar that was cemented to my teeth. Detective Alicia was about to get to the bottom of this 10+ year battle with my jaw!So, in an effort to figure out if the bar was the problem, I contacted my childhood orthodontist and asked him what the bar was made from. He had to send the metal to the lab to get a report and, drum roll please....it was made mainly from nickel! I immediately made an appointment to get the bar removed and started taking a supplement to rid myself of the metal in my body.
My first NRT appointment was on September 8. I can now, just two and a half months later, finally say that my pain in my jaw is GONE completely!!!!!!!!!! The problem with the route I was trying to go was, modern doctors only treat current symptoms but have no idea what's going on inside your body until something pops up on their radar. And, they only treat the symptoms with the tools and the best knowledge that they have at that time, which often depends on their specialty. NRT tells you what parts of your body are struggling and why they are struggling and allows you the opportunity, through proper nutrition and all-natural supplements, to fix the issues BEFORE they blow up into major problems down the road! I had major amounts of nickel, gluten, and dairy building up in my system for years and my liver, bladder and kidneys were working overtime to try to get those toxins out but they weren't able to because I wasn't fixing the problem- just adding to it. Now that I've cleared my body of this heavy metal and been able to focus on eating proper foods, I not only feel better but I've most likely added years to my life because I've stopped forcing my organs to work harder than they need to.
If I hadn't gone through the process, I wouldn't have believed it myself but after 10+ years of pain and a million appointments with different answers and solutions from all of them, this alternative practice actually solved my issue without surgery, medication, or mouth guards! I'm telling you, find a doctor that provides Nutrition Response Testing in your area and RUN to their office to find out what's going on in your body!