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Understanding the cause

What is wrong with me? CMD explained clearly

When many complaints come together and nobody can explain them, it often has a name: craniomandibular dysfunction, CMD for short. Here you can find out calmly what that means.

CMD in one sentence

CMD is a reflex, nerve-driven misregulation in the interplay of the jaw joints and the jaw and head muscles.

That sounds small, but it affects a system that is connected to the whole body.

An image that helps

Your jaw system is a clockwork

Imagine your jaw system as a finely tuned clockwork: teeth, joints, muscles and nerves have to fit together exactly. If one part falls out of step, for example through a bite problem, the rest has to compensate. This constant stress shows itself in the most varied places.

The hands show the time, but they are not the time.

It is worth staying with the image of the clock for a moment. The hands show the time, but they are not the time. In the same way, your teeth show how the system currently stands. They are not the problem. Behind them lies the control, and it works with nerves and reflexes, not with millimetres on a model. That is why we look at the clock first before we say what needs to be done.

This way of looking at things has a name: systems medicine. It does not see the body as a kit of individual parts to be repaired one after another, but as a system that constantly readjusts itself. CMD Systems Medicine takes the same view and makes the jaw system its focus, because the control can be reached there without changing anything irrevocably.

Why a small disturbance causes so many complaints

It often doesn’t hurt where the cause is

The jaw system is closely linked to the body’s entire posture through muscles and nerves: from head to toe. Problems “travel” along these connections: via the head, ear and neck into the spine, pelvis and feet.

  • Headachesdo not always arisein the head
  • Neck paindo not always arisein the neck
  • Tinnitusdo not always arisein the ear
  • Dizzinessdo not always arisein the balance organ
  • That is why we don’t just look at symptoms. We look at connections.

That is why it often does not hurt where the cause is, and why CMD so often goes undetected.

How certain is this? The further you move away from the jaw, the more careful you have to be, and we prefer to tell you that ourselves. For the head, face and neck the scientific basis is good. For the spine, pelvis and feet, and for ear complaints, the evidence is inconsistent: a causal link is not scientifically proven. What we write about it is our clinical experience from many years of working with patients, and that is exactly how it is meant, not as a proven fact.

Important, and often misunderstood

This is not about “psychosomatic” (meaning the psyche causes the pain). It is the other way round: a real physical misregulation creates, over months and years, a somatopsychic burden : high distress, pain and anxiety, because nobody finds the cause. We take both seriously and treat the body, and the psyche settles too.

Finally understandable

Why the cause often goes undetected for a long time

If previous treatments did not bring the hoped-for success, this is almost never due to a lack of competence on the part of your doctors, dentists or therapists. On the contrary, they worked carefully and correctly in their respective fields.

Our healthcare system is highly specialised, and that makes sense: the ENT specialist examines the ear, the neurologist the nerves, the orthopaedist the back, the dentist the teeth. CMD, however, acts across several of these areas at once and therefore easily slips through the net of the individual disciplines. Not out of negligence, but because the interplay between them is rarely looked at as a whole.

  • Head

    Neurological assessment, imaging, often with no findings.

  • Throat & ears

    ENT assessment for tinnitus and dizziness, often unremarkable.

  • Eyes

    Eye test for pressure behind the eyes, usually without explanation. We are interested in a question that is often overlooked: Do you wear glasses or contact lenses? If your vision is not corrected properly, you unconsciously adopt a head posture, and it reaches into the neck and jaw.

  • Spine

    Orthopaedics and physiotherapy: many people feel a clear benefit, and we are happy to work with them. If the complaints still keep coming back, it is worth looking at the jaw system.

Each of these examinations was right. What rarely anyone checks as well is the connection to the jaw.

This is exactly where we come in, as a complement, not as competition. We take the time to measure the interplay of jaw, muscles, nerves and posture as a unit, and we are happy to work with your previous practitioners.

Triggers

Where does CMD come from?

There is rarely a single cause. Usually several things come together, often from birth and growth onwards:

  1. 01Growth disorders & faulty development of the jaw (too narrow, too little space)
  2. 02Congenital malformations & stress around birth
  3. 03Early childhood habits: sleeping on the stomach, mouth breathing, thumb sucking, chewing on one side
  4. 04Psychological stress, even in childhood (constant stress leads to grinding & clenching)
  5. 05Accidents, falls & trauma (e.g. whiplash)
  6. 06Dental procedures (e.g. fillings or crowns that are too high)
  7. 07Orthodontic treatment, especially extracting teeth to create space
  8. 08Missing or unreplaced teeth
  9. 09Poor posture & lifestyle (long sitting, screens, “turtle neck”)
  10. 10Hereditary jaw and face shape

The good news

In the vast majority of cases, CMD is treatable , initially with gentle methods that do not change anything about the teeth. The first step is recognising it at all.

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