Bodywork Oral Health CONNECTS TO

by Carl Johns, LMT, Mountain Medicine Integrative Wellness Center

Of course the best road to oral health is prevention, but our best intentions can still eventually land us in the dental chair for some pretty unpleasant procedures. Most of us have been through some form of drilling, grinding, pulling, hammering, etc.

As far as we have come with the technology of dental work, many of us feel something like the people Dr. Fischer is describing above. So dental work, oral surgeries, tension, stress, grinding of teeth, all create a degree of trauma in the bones of the face and cranium.

Craniosacral therapy is a gentle form of bodywork, much of which is focused around facial and cranial bones that can gently unwind the physical stresses that we absorb during these kinds of procedures.

And for those who suffer more emotional trauma from dental work, craniosacral work can help there too, relaxing the mind and the body.

Craniosacral therapy in its modern context comes from the work of William Garner Sutherland in the early to mid-20th century, known as osteopathy in the cranial field. Sutherland worked more and more toward a light, non-invasive touch, which he referred to as “like a feather on the breath of God.”

B y touching lightly and following the movements and rhythms of the bones and tissues, the body would find its proper form and ultimately its health.

T he use of craniosacral therapy spans a wide array of physical trauma, emotional trauma and health conditions. As a bodywork therapist, I have incorporated this work for many variations of injury, chronic pain, PTSD, disabilities and health challenges.

O ur context here is very specific, but it is right in the wheelhouse of craniosacral therapy, If you find yourself suffering from chronic stress, TMJ dysfunction, facial injury or dental trauma, seek out a good craniosacral therapist to help you return to a state of ease in your body and mind that will support good oral health.