The "Doorjam theory" as to why a mouthguard works

It keeps the jaw separated from the skull like a doorjam.

Tons of people ask me why this mouthguard works.

And the metaphor I like to use is a doorjam.

That essentially a mouthguard acts like a doorjam that prevents the teeth from coming fully together and that in turn holds the jaw a bit open.

But why does that ‘inflate’ the skull and have so many positive effects on the human body?

Today i’ll explain.

What is the “Doorjam theory”?

The theory goes something like this:

• The mouthguard sits between the jaw and the rest of the skull acting like a sort of doorjam that prevents the jaw from closing

• As a result the tissue inside the mouth as well as around the skull stretches. Just open your mouth wide and you should feel a stretch of the tissue.

• When this tissue stretches the skull kind of inflates like a balloon in my experience (ie. my “balloon theory” that the skull and skeleton inflate and deflate).

• As that happens the cranial bones now have room to move outwards and into better alignment. The jaw also can begin to return to where it should be.

• The palate widens as the bones move outwards and the teeth are connected to the bones/jaw so they now have room to align better.

• The soft tissue of the skull is connected to the soft tissue throughout the body and so that stretches too.. which allows the skeleton to then unwind/

• As the skeleton unwinds the organs revert back to their normal position and any compression on them begins to reduce. Overall health begins to improve.

There you have it.. like a cascading set of domino effects.

How did I arrive at this theory?

I feel like I can confidently say that I’ve arrived at the above conclusions through logic and trial & error as opposed to some deep research or knowledge of anatomy.

Over the past ~11 years I have screwed myself up and then fixed it many times as I was trying to figure out how these biomechanics worked.

The first time was in 2014 when a TMJ dentist in Vietnam told me he wanted to ‘fix my dental contacts’ and ended up filing down my back teeth considerably. Which sent me into an expedited ‘collapse’ process.

During that collapse process I saw firsthand what being on the wrong side of this “doorjam theory” is like. Because I’d essentially lost ‘vertical’ in my mouth as opposed to increasing it.

And very quickly my face aged, my skeleton/posture worsened, i had severe brain fog, my vision worsened, other health issues popped up, etc.

Then I started using a dental splint in late 2014 and started reversing those effects. And was amazed at how quickly the body was able to heal itself.

Unfortunately it took another 7 years until late 2021 till I was convinced i’d fully figured out how it works. And during that time I’d inflated and deflated my skull and skeleton many times.

Which has a massive impact on your actual life. Trust me on that one. lol

What proof do I have that it actually works this way?

The ‘proof’ lies in what I experienced…

Everytime I put either a mouthguard or flat plane splint… this positive cascading set of events seemed to be triggered.

I would start to look and function better. I seemed to ‘de-age’.

And I considered it ‘inflating’ the skull because I would see that my skin in various parts of my face and scalp would actually stretch and rip. The skin would often redden and sometimes bits of my scalp would flake off.

Plus my skull was clearly getting larger (eg in circumference) and wrinkles were disappearing.

It was like inflating a deflated ball.

Along with this many functional things would always improve. I would think clearer, have more energy, be in a better mood, etc.

Plus my teeth would start to look cleaner and align better without any special effort.

But then if I removed the mouthguard or flat plane splint for an extended period all of these things I mention above would start to go in reverse.

Does it have to be a mouthguard?

People like to ask me if there is something special about our Reviv mouthguards and I like to be honest that there absolutely is not.

It is a flat mouthguard and it functionally works like all other flat mouthguards. But we tried to make a good one.

With that said, you don’t even need a mouthguard to trigger these biomechanics. Literally anything that puts height between the teeth and has a flat surface will work.

The key is that it needs to unlock how the upper and lower teeth come together because these teeth act as sort of anchors to the bones that they are attached to.

In order for the cranial bones and jaw to move you need to allow the teeth (ie. the anchors) to move. Which is easy when they are biting down on a flat surface, but a lot harder when they are fixed into a locking bite with the opposing teeth.

So if you were able to bite on a pencil all day long like the person in the pic above… you would also experience the positive biomechanical effects I am talking about. Though I do think a mouthguard will be faster and far more comfortable.

This is very different from orthodontics

The orthodontic paradigm is about pushing on and moving teeth.

That is how things like braces and aligners work. They strap onto teeth and force them to move.

Sometimes their appliances also try to fix directly onto the bone like certain palate expanders.

I consider all of these things to be completely wrong. Because it is the wrong physics.

You need to start with the soft tissue and stretch it because it is very strong. And if you don’t stretch it then all of your efforts to move things around will work against you.

You’ll just derange the cranial bones further because the soft tissue ‘balloon’ is not inflating. The bones are just rearranging inside the balloon ‘for the worse’.

And you’ll put the teeth in the wrong position to support the skull as braces/aligners do.

Which is why the correct physics is this ‘doorjam’ approach. Where you just stick something between the teeth and then let the skull inflate.

And voila! Over time everything expands and fixes on its own.

And in a way that remains stable and far more aesthetically pleasing (ie. symmetric, etc.) than the orthodontic way.

Closing thoughts

So today I explained my ‘doorjam theory’ on why a simple flat mouthguard works and things like orthodontics do not.

Now I challenge you all to test it from a logical standpoint. Because that is how I arrived at this stuff.

Try to disprove it if you can.

I think you will find it very challenging.

Whereas you will see how the logic behind orthodontics falls flat on its face.

Wearing braces, aligners, palate expanders… will ALL send the skull collapsing in over time until it is allowed to stabilize back into a healthy bite again.

Whereas literally everyone that puts something between their teeth that is flat (eg. like a mouthguard) will improve their health and aesthetics over time.

Find me the person for which that is not true.

Having access to thousands of data points of people doing Reviv now… I can tell you that you will be looking very hard.