Monitoring Ocular Changes that May Accompany Use of Dental Appliances and/or Osteopathic Craniosacral Manipulations in the Treatment of TMJ and Related Problems

Abstract

Significant changes in ocular refraction, corneal curvature, and ocular position have been noted and measured as a concomitant of the use of dental appliances and/or osteopathic craniosacral manipulations in ongoing therapies for treatment of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome and other related head, neck, and shoulder problems. The near-immediacy in time of these variations and the absence of other reasonable causes suggest that precise monitoring of these patients before treatment begins and during subsequent therapy can assist the practitioner in quantifying the progress and effects of the treatment of chronic head, neck, and swallowing problems.The six case histories presented in this paper demonstrate significant changes in hypereye, proptosis, corneal astigmatism (and axis), and refractive error. The magnitude of these alterations ranges from 25% to 300% of the pretreatment condition. While the subjective symptom improvement of these cases would have to be regarded as anecdotal, visual parameter analysis of a large patient population may help to provide predictive cause and effect assumptions.