Reviews (2)

An excellent book with very useful information
Dr.Goddard, who practices at the University of California, San Francisco Center for TMD, has written an excellent and very useful book for anyone who has a TMJ disorder. He provides an overview of the disorder and a first-rate self-care section with many tips on how to manage the problem. This is a must-read book for anyone who suffers from TMJ.

Excellent introduction to this disorder.
This is an excellent introduction to the causes and treatment of this debilitating disorder. I found it very helpful. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is about detecting the cause of head and neck pain, muscle tension patterns, jaw problems, crooked teeth and other dental abnormalities, eating and swallowing disorders, speech and learning disorders, and emotional dysfunction, etc. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

The book is like paying for advertisement
Well what can I say. The author started talking about his secret thumb therapy and from then on kept repeating cases after cases, without achieving much. It was like reading an ad for a therapy which was never discussed. Even from a general medical interest standpoint the material has little to offer.

Buying the book was a waste of money, reading it was a waste of time.

Overpriced and vague
In addition to being overpriced, I thought this book was very vague and elusive when it comes to "discovery of a cure". The author purports to get to the "cause" of many illnesses and pain in the human body, yet it can be summed up in two words: "oral habits". As a practicing speech pathologist, I found it appaling that the author recommends putting one's thumb in their mouth in order to talk more efficiently?? Unless I am missing the big picture, this "vaccine cure" of using the thumb in order to cure speech disorders caused by fingers or thumbs just not make sense to me. I read and re-read the "therapy" section only to be more confused. In addition, he blasts school speech therapy programs stating they wait until students are in the 5th grade to start speech therapy. In my district, we were encouraged heavily to identify and treat kids as EARLY as possible. We did not "wait and see"...rather we made great efforts to start kids in therapy in Kindergarten.

Do read it!
I strongly recommend Pebble in the Shoe to those with a personal or professional interest in Speech Therapy, Orthodontics, or TMJ problems. I also commend it to anyone who enjoys reading about new discoveries and achievements.

For me Streicher's therapy was a break-through in my search for help with my own speech difficulty (following adult Orthodontic treatment). It offers understanding and practical help after months of professional consultations and browsing the Internet in search of understanding of my particular problem.

Streicher's therapy is a totally natural, non-invasive way to treat speech, dental and jaw problems. It describes how we can allow nature to heal us and has given me hope that I can be cured without further Orthodontic or Dental work.

John Streicher's search for and discovery of a cure originated from realising his Aunt's difficulty in communicating. He describes her problems and his own struggle to have his theories accepted.

I found the book interesting, exciting, informative and sympathetic and I dearly wish there were professionals in my own country who practise Streicher's therapy.

The Pebble in the Shoe
There has been a proliferation of books, tapes, seminars that address stress, anxiety, muscle tension, migrane headaches, TMJ and jaw problems, neck and back pains. If these area's are of interest or concern to you then John P. Streicher's book, The Pebble in the Shoe, should be at the top of your list. What is most meaningful for me is John's approach to "swallowing difficulties, speech and learning disorders and emotional dysfunction and how these are symtoms connected by a common cause". If you are a parent of a child with a speech or language disoder or an adult with a speech or language disorder this book is priceless. I have read Roberta Pierce's book concerning "Tongue Thurst" and Richard Barrett's "Oral Myofunctional Disoders" and John Streicher accurately states that "their therapy does not cure;it does not recondition the reflex system. It is another way of teaching individuals to control or override their habit conditioned speech and swallowing patterns". This book reminds me of the world renowned "Alexander Technique" developed by Frederick Matthias Alexander. John takes it a step further than Alexander by providing a "Vaccination", a therapy, he discovered. Like Alexander, John saw the need of finding the cause of a problem not just looking at the symtoms of the problem. Alexander stressed a process he called "inhibition- the ability to stop, to stop at the source, those harmful habits of thinking and doing from which most of us suffer". John discovered "that an oral habit causes problems by forcing the body to operate around it". But, "simply eliminating a habit would not bring the body back into balance. Someting was needed to recondition the system", according to John. This "reconditioning the system" is what the Alexander Technique lacks. John's Vaccination and subsequent Therapy is going to benefit so many people especially for those who have lost hope. Indivduals who have taken the inititive to seek professional speech therapy, for speech difficulty, are highly motivated. These individuals recognize that they have a problem and want to correct the problem by seeking the knowledge and expertise of a competent, qualified and experienced speech therapist. Unfortunately speech therapy has been and is still today "a sympton-chasing practice". "Speech pathologists describe an articulation pattern by listing what sounds are omitted, distorted, or substituted with other sounds. They are not trained to address causes". For those who have sought professional help for speech difficulties and have felt frustration, humiliation and failure even after years of "professional therapy", John Streicher's, The Pebble in the Shoe is a miraculous gift! The most profound affect for me was in the speech field but the therapy is applicable in the fields of education, dentistry, psychology, and medicine. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Helpful in explaining condition and treatment options.
This book was very helpful in explaining TMJ disorders and treatment options. The book gives detailed descriptions of the problems the TMJ Disorder can cause. It also describes a variety of treatment options. The case examples were also useful because you could see that people had improved following treatment. The chapters on exercise and nutrition gave motivation to exercise and eat properly. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

marginal but has some interesting ideas
The title of your book is very good as TMJ does have indeed many many faces. Unfortunately the medical and dental communities ingeneral tend to treat TMJ in the traditional dogmas of the past forty years or more. I am a dentist who treats TMJ problems with functonal jaw orthopedics and when done correctly this technigue "unmasks" TMJ as the true culprit as the causitive factor of most all chronic headaches, neck aches and other associated head and neck pain problems. The most common ailment associated with TMJ is the chronic headache including migraine. Thousands of cases have been resolved using functional jaw orthopedics. ... Read more

Book Description

The Temporomandibular Joint and Related Orofacial Complaints isa succinct and readable text of practical value in the diagnosis andtreatment of temporomandibular disorders. This comprehensive resourcecovers definitions, misconceptions and possible etiologies of TMJ andrelated disorders. It describes in detail the pertinent anatomy andphysiology of the masticatory system, and identifies practical methodsto differentially diagnose these disorders from similar complaints. Itis organized in a decision-tree format to enhance the reader's abilityto identify and evaluate changes in signs and symptoms of thesedisorders. It also addresses preventive solutions in management ofpatients with chronic pain, and provides recommendations for treatmentplanning. Information on insurance coding, narrative reporting andrecord keeping is also featured. ... Read more

Book Description

This comprehensive volume reviews the latest basic and clinicalresearch on orofacial pain conditions and describes current approachesto diagnosis and treatment. Leading experts in pain research andmanagement provide new insights on the neurophysiologic processesassociated with orofacial pain and the new methods that are being usedto manage it. New classifications and diagnostic criteria fortemporomandibular disorders are fully assessed, including newmeasurements of pain-related disability and psychological status. Thebook covers a wide range of topics from a broad multidisciplinaryperspective. The opening section discusses the prevalence and impact oforofacial pain. The next section examines the specific mechanisms oforofacial pain and its modulation. The book then provides extensivecoverage of orofacial pain assessment, diagnosis, and classification,including new classifications of headache and facial pain and thedifferential diagnosis of temporomandibular disorders. The next majorsection explores diagnostic strategies for temporomandibular disorders,and the book concludes with discussions of current patient managementstrategies and issues. ... Read more