Neck pain and back pain
Cause and effect
FaceFormer® Offers in the Dr. Berndsen Shop
The effective solution for snoring, sleep apnea, CMD, jaw problems and many other indications. Simple, causal, effective.
Cause and effect
As with most pain phenomena in the human body, pain in the head, shoulder, neck and back region can have numerous causes. However, with a frequency of around 99 per cent, muscle tension, which occurs as a result of incorrect static posture and incorrect strain, is the cause of pain. Wear and tear is the result of these repetitive influences. In addition, there is the typical wear and tear that comes with increasing age. In both cases, wear and tear does not necessarily lead to a pain problem. Despite degenerative changes, most people probably remain largely pain-free. Others, however, sooner or later experience pain that occurs intermittently or becomes resistant permanent pain (chronic pain).
Pain
The main causes of neck and back pain are overstrained, tense muscles and poor posture.
Who is affected?
The question arises – why does one group feel pain sooner or later and the other does not, despite the same signs of wear and tear?
- An important, always to be considered reason, is the individual nature and disposition of the human individual. They vary in all facets of the physical and mental constitution. Disease and physical stress have completely different effects and manifestations for every human being.
- External stresses in everyday life or in the workplace and resulting overloads as well as incorrect movements can also be involved in the development of pain.
- Often malfunctions, but also misguided functions, are generated by the human body itself. Despite their mistakes, they can ensure posture and movement, but they have a negative impact at different points. Such disturbances usually occur in early stages of human development. A time at which countless complex routines are learned to control all arbitrary and involuntary functions. Examples include standing, walking, feeling, hearing, speaking, swallowing and breathing. These abilities are based on a system that man brings to the world. Later external stimuli provide a differentiated qualitative development.
Example of breathing
Breathing is naturally realised immediately after birth without any problems, as the newborn would otherwise not be viable. Subsequently, however, breathing can develop into an incorrect breathing pattern. For example, nasal breathing, which is important for humans, switches to mouth breathing due to various negative influences. Both lead to the necessary air supply. If we habitually breathe through our mouths, the urgently needed cleansing, warming and humidification of the air we breathe does not take place. In addition, there is a lack of stimuli that contribute to the development of coordination of the respiratory muscles and lung function.
Somatic routines
It is external disruptive factors and irritations that influence the correct development of functions and postures and compensate for these through malfunctions. The latter increasingly develop into harmful habits. In future, we want to use the term ‘somatic routine’ to define every habit (automation) that develops. Somatic routines last a lifetime, regardless of whether they are correct or incorrect. If they are negative, they should be corrected.
Persistent incorrect functional patterns, deviating postures and movements, ultimately cause damage, which can lead to pain if a tolerance threshold is exceeded.
Permanent compensation causes damage
One group suffers from natural age-related wear and tear. The entire organism adapts its development to this and constant adjustments (adaptation) occur. Although this normal process can be disrupted by short-term overloading of the body from outside (e.g. heavy lifting), the resulting pain is temporary. Although there is damage, pain is felt less frequently, to a lesser extent or not at all.
In the other group, there are resistant functional deviations that are compensated for by misguided ‘somatic routines’. As a result of deterioration in posture, increased stress levels and repetitive false stimuli, the stress limit is increasingly exceeded, even to the point of pain. In such cases, the pain usually persists with varying intensity (chronic pain).
Compensatory behaviour for pain
The following example can once again illustrate the connection between compensation and injury: If we want to continue walking after a leg injury, we can compensate by ‘limping’. The originally learnt walking movement is replaced by a new movement pattern. This ‘somatic routine’ leads to a functional change and causes an incorrect load on the entire system. If we had to maintain it for weeks and months, it would cause damage to joints, ligaments and muscles and damage the correct gait pattern.
Malfunctions and patterns must be corrected!
Permanent compensatory movements can only be eliminated if malfunctions are replaced by correct movement and posture patterns. This change can only be achieved through specialised and systematic training. This must be carried out consistently until it becomes a positive somatic routine.
The relevance of head balance
An unstable head balance is a significant factor that affects the entire body statics. It is probably one of the main causes of pain in the neck, face and back. The upright human gait requires a balanced static system. Deviations from this lead to visibly severe strain on the cervical spine, lumbar spine, hip joints and knees. In fact, they put a strain on the entire body statics. Muscles, tendons and joints adapt to the incorrect posture and movement. The problem is perpetuated and exacerbated by constant stimuli (triggers).
Another deviating development that is always attributed to a completely different set of causes is dental alignment problems and jaw misalignments. It is hardly known that these can also be caused by deviating head balance and accompanying malfunctions. Tooth positions and jaw moulds often change for the worse, even though treatment has been carried out over several years. Head-supporting, head-stabilising and other important functional areas often remain unconsidered in these recurrent treatment results. However, it is precisely the correction of such functions that enables and consolidates the lasting success of orthodontic treatment.
Combined pain therapy
It must be assumed that most people do not just imagine pain. They often suffer from unbearable pain. Combined pain treatments (multimodal pain therapy), which provide for the interdisciplinary treatment of patients, are aimed at treating chronic pain, among other things. The use of painkillers, individually customised for the patient, is usually necessary. Physical treatments are a further component of care and, in a few exceptional cases, surgery may be indicated.
FaceFormer® therapy for neck pain, facial pain, headaches, back pain
The contents and variations of physical treatments are diverse. They are aimed at stabilising and correcting a wide range of muscle functions and movement patterns.
However, little consideration is given to the functional segments that are responsible for head balance, jaw movements and the associated effects on the neck, shoulder girdle and back.
FaceFormer therapy targets all the important functions that stabilise head posture and head balance and subsequently the entire body statics. Complex muscle chain functions are included, which are required for the fine-tuning of the coordinated system. These include muscles which, following the tongue, attach to the head and connect it to the trunk of the human body. Only when the tension in this system is corrected can balance be achieved. FaceFormer therapy simultaneously influences the functional circuits of jaw movement and jaw position as well as tongue movement and breathing. It supports the necessary stability. Only the correct interaction of these functional circuits stabilises the overall system, transforms negative patterns into positive patterns and helps to prevent a relapse into the old state of pain.
FaceFormer therapy has already provided quick and effective help to countless people suffering from pain. It should be noted that the desired goal – to be free of pain – can only be achieved through consistent and correct application (according to the instructions). The training is carried out until the necessary ‘somatic routine’ (automatisation, pattern formation) has been established.
FaceFormer® application in numerous medical disciplines
Decades of practical application have shown that FaceFormer therapy can also be easily integrated into the treatment concepts of a wide range of medical disciplines. These include, among others:
