For many years, my dentist had strongly urged me to get braces to correct my severe overbite.  In 1968, my hometown dentist had asked, “Do your parents want you to get braces?”  I said, “No,” without checking with them.  I knew that putting three children through college challenged their financial resources.

When my dentist in the 1980s suggested again that I should get braces, I reluctantly agreed after I woke one morning with an imprint of my teeth on my lips.  I started the process in March 1989 with the removal of five teeth to allow room for the remaining teeth.

In August 1990, I started seeing Dane Shepherd, an Osteopath who works with people unsatisfied with the traditional medical (allopathic).  I’d gone to an internist, an allergy doctor, and an ophthalmologist to deal with an never-ending stream of problems of watery eyes, runny nose, and headaches.

When the eye doctor suggested that my sex life was the cause, I knew a different approach was necessary.  Don, a coworker, shared the story of a friend who, after many unsuccessful visits to traditional doctors, found relief through seeing Dane.

Dane listened to my maladies and immediately identified the problem, my braces.  Each adjustment changed the configuration of my bones and he suggested that I remove the braces.  I rejected that solution since I wanted my teeth to be straightened.  To relieve my symptoms, he started doing cranial sacral work on me.

I lay on the table feeling his fingers move just slightly under my neck and then under my lower back.  I rose from the table feeling slightly disoriented and my sinuses started to drain.  I rode the el home and went directly to bed, totally exhausted.

He used cranial sacral, acupuncture, and homeopathy in my treatment.  I finally had some relief and acknowledgement that my maladies were real.  What a relief!