Abstract
The final piece in this series looks at fascia and the autonomic nervous system — the connective tissue and nerve pathways linking the jaw, neck, and airway into one continuous system — and why both matter to dentistry. Dr. Davis draws on current fascia and pain science research, including work from the 2025 International Fascia Research Congress in New Orleans, to explain how a misaligned bite can travel through this tissue and surface as headaches, how tongue posture and breathwork affect jaw stability, and why complex, chronic cases so often need more than one discipline to make headway. Told partly through her own ongoing experience as a patient, the piece makes the case that treating the “whole patient” isn’t a soft add-on to good dentistry — it’s often what makes progress possible at all.
Recommended Citation
Davis, Kelly PT, DPT, FAAOMPT, MT
(2026)
"The Whole Patient: What Fascia Reveals About Pain, Adaptation, and the Case for Treating Together,"
New Orleans Dental Association News: Vol. 64:
No.
8, Article 2.
Available at:
https://commons.ada.org/noda-news/vol64/iss8/2