Esther writes:

<I am starting to notice  more and more babies who are jaw clenchers,
i.e. those who do not open wide and who even manage to cry with a closed
mouth.  IN almost all of these cases, the common thread is that the mom
reports one of those speedy births where she nearly delivered in the car
or the elevator......they often never even make it to the delivery room
and almost none have epidurals.  Is speeding through the birth canal
causing their jaws to lock..obstetric whiplash??
If only we had someone doing CST on infants here!!
Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this.>

I wonder about possible jaw dislocations, pain etc. in clenchers.

I was asking a friend (retired dentist) recently about what type lever
the Tempero Mandibular Joint is, and he provided me with a reference from
Gray's Anatomy, (now resting in one of those "piles" somewhere in my
study), and told me that the TMJ is the only joint in the body that
functions differently in 2 different positions, depending on the position
of  a part called the condyle.

Are there any dentists or other dental professionals out there who can
fill in some info for us?

Jean
**************************************************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA

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