Ear to Tampa Bay
JAW DYSFUNCTION
AFFECTS THE
WHOLE BODY
By Deborah Karlan, L.M.T.
The relationship of temporal
mandibular joint pain and
dysfunction is often overlooked
as a key component in headaches,
neck and back pain. Patients with TMJ
symptoms usually experience headaches,
neck pain, and even low back and sacral
pain. Treating TMJ with a splint is
common, but often has limited success
and can exacerbate the condition if the
surrounding muscles are not treated and
contractions released. Looking at the
overall body structure and how it relates
to painful symptoms, I have found that
most patients with face pain, headaches
and jaw problems also have muscular
structural problems.
Tim came for restorative massage with
complaints of headaches, tightness and
pain in his face, head, neck, shoulders and
back. He was disabled, and his pain and
tightness had progressively gotten worse
since he was 10 and a dentist had removed
eight crowded teeth from his mouth. He
had tried various mouth splints without
results. The muscles throughout his body
were in spasm and contracted. He could
barely open his mouth, and eating was
very painful. He had limited range of
motion in his neck and back. I released
muscle tensions starting with light touch
neuromuscular therapy and myofascial
release to his jaw, face and neck. Then I
did cranial sacral therapy to rebalance the
cranial sacral system. We are continuing
sessions twice a week, as we retrain his
body systems and relax his muscles. He is
now ready to again try a dental approach
to resolve his jaw imbalance. Restorative
massage therapy had a relaxing, healing
effect on his whole body.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Deborah Karlan, L.M.T.
has been a massage therapist and colon hydrotherapist
for more than 40 years. Her Wellness
From Within office is at 2158 Drew St.
in Clearwater. Her information website is
dkarlan.com. For questions and appointments
and to find harmony and balance with massage,
please call (727) 641-8979. FL License MA4487,
Est. MM27138
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 87
Joyce and Walter Larson celebrated his
birthday at their home in St. Petersburg with
a party catered by Parkshore Grill Catering
and attended by his whole family, including
his grandson from Jackson Hole, Wyoming,
along with a houseful of local friends, who
received personal photo favors.
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Chair Joanie Sigal thanked Megan Simons for providing fashions from her Pippa Pelure
boutique in St. Petersburg for the 15th annual Fashions with Flair luncheon, auction and
runway fashion show benefit for The Children’s Home in Tampa, The Pinellas Sheriff’s Police
Athletic League of Lealman Sports Complex and Winter Wonderland, which was underwritten
by the Church of Scientology and held at its historic Fort Harrison in Clearwater.
LAMPLighters’ “Lights Fashion Hope”
evening benefit in Tampa for
Metropolitan Ministries and Joshua
House.....Joyce Baskin of Belleair has
been tapped to chair the Belleair Rotary
Club’s annual Wine and Tapas evening
benefit.....Linda Stacy Mills is the
2018/2019 president of the
LAMPLighters organization in Tampa,
which assists the children and families
served by Metropolitan Ministries and
Joshua House.....London Bates is the
chair of the Dunedin Fine Art Center’s
board of directors, while Debbie White
and Bill Francisco are the co-chairs of
the center’s advisory board.....Rebecca
Malowany, broker-associate at Smith
and Associates Real Estate, is this year’s
board president for Infinity, the League
to Aid Abused Children and Adults in
St. Petersburg.....Madeline Robinson,
executive director of Wheelchairs 4 Kids,
received the 2018 Tampa Bay Ethics
Award during the 28th annual Business
Ethics Breakfast of the University of
Tampa’s Center for Ethics at the Sykes
College of Business. 9
GRAM