Bite, Head Position and Neck Pain: A Video Discussion

At first glance, your bite and neck pain seem like two separate issues. But take a closer look at head position, and a question comes up: could the way your teeth meet be part of the bigger picture? That's the question I want to explore. Below are a video and an explanation connecting the bite, head position and well-being.

The bite, head and neck: watch the video

Watch the video on YouTube

How the pieces might fit together

The video puts forward the following hypothesis. Birth trauma and impaired nasal breathing during illness may play a part in the development of a distal bite. Excessive tooth contacts and night-time grinding are linked, in this explanation, to wear of the tooth cusps and a loss of their height, and those changes to a backward tilt of the head.

The model goes on to include difficulties with swallowing and breathing, a hoarse voice and insufficient oxygen reaching the brain. It also includes changes in tongue position, narrowing of the dental arches and changes in facial proportions: the face becomes longer, with wrinkles and nasolabial folds appearing.

It makes for a fairly coherent explanation. But I wouldn't mistake coherence for proof: the accompanying material provides no data confirming this whole sequence. It's important to recognise when we're considering a hypothesis and when we're drawing a conclusion about our own health.

Body Balancer: what does 3–7 days mean?

The approach under discussion describes using Body Balancer for 3–7 days while observing changes in well-being. This is a proposed observation period, not a validated diagnostic protocol. The duration alone cannot tell us how accurately the approach identifies the cause of symptoms.

I can see the appeal of a short observation period: you want to understand what's going on sooner. But speed alone doesn't make a conclusion about the cause more reliable.

Body Balancer is presented here as an accessible way to make preliminary observations before deciding on orthodontic treatment. Its action is explained through the “illusion” of restored tooth contacts. The metaphor helps us picture the idea, but it doesn't, by itself, establish that the device replaces diagnosis or treatment.

Less pain, more energy, a better sense of overall well-being — that's how the expected result is described. Yet the original description gives no data on how often it happens, how it was assessed or what study supports it. So promising everyone the same effect would be going too far.

If you feel better, what does it mean?

Headaches, dizziness, fatigue, jaw clicking, tinnitus, snoring, and neck and back pain — all these symptoms are listed in the proposed observations. But even if something on that list changes, the cause has not yet been established.

I'd separate two questions: “Do I feel better?” and “Why do I feel better?” The answer to the first matters, but it doesn't hand us the answer to the second. It's all too easy to draw a much broader conclusion from a welcome change in how we feel.

You can discuss these observations with a clinician. But on their own, they don't prove that orthodontic treatment is necessary or establish an appropriate duration of use. The description also mentions long-term use of Body Balancer by some patients — that isn't a ready-made recommendation for everyone, either.

What do we know about neck pain?

With temporomandibular joint disorders, pain can spread to the neck. However, that alone does not confirm the chain of causes described above or the effects of Body Balancer. For me, the important thing is to stay curious about the connection between the jaw and the neck, without turning an interesting explanation into a universal answer.

Reference: NIDCR — information about temporomandibular disorders (in English).

More about Body Balancer

For more information about the device discussed in this article, visit the Body Balancer page.