A young athlete, orthodontic braces, and a pitching arm that wasn’t working.
A 12-year-old pitcher’s mother reached out about his ongoing arm pain, which had been affecting his pitching for about two months.
What I found
On examination, every muscle in his right shoulder, arm and wrist was failing to fire correctly — while his left arm, legs, torso and abdominals all tested normally. The pattern pointed to something specific to that side. Given his age, I looked at his mouth first: he had orthodontic braces, which can compress the skull as the plates of the cranium are pulled on by the forces involved in straightening teeth.
Testing showed that pressure related to the braces temporarily restored function in his right-arm muscles, which told me the cranial compression I found was relevant to his arm pain.
What I did
I adjusted the areas of his skull I identified as needing to relieve that pressure.
What changed
He got off the table with noticeably reduced pain, and within the following week he was pain-free. Because his braces were ongoing, I continued seeing him periodically to help his body manage the forces from continued orthodontic adjustments.
I don’t tell patients or parents to stop orthodontic treatment — braces and orthodontia serve an important purpose, and I’m not suggesting otherwise. What I do is show families what I find on testing and work alongside the orthodontic process, not against it. This case illustrates a pattern I see fairly often in young athletes with new orthodontic hardware.
Related reading
Read about the relationship between the cranium, face and jaw, or see more real patient cases.