How could a dentist help me with chronic feet pain?

In the European summer of 2004, I was in my mid-20s, and had taken the decision to return to full-time tennis coaching. I had been unable to play competitive tennis for two years and had cut back considerably on my tennis coaching hours, as I was struggling with chronic foot pain, often known as plantar fasciitis. I took a job for Mark Warner Holidays working on the island of Kos, in Greece. I had very little belief in my body to be able to hold up to doing 6 days of tennis coaching a week, but I was excited to be in this amazing location for the next four months. Two months into my adventure, one of the other coaches in the team insisted I talked to one of the guests called Rob, who he said could help me with my injuries. 

It turned out that Rob was a holistic dentist, not something I had heard of before! The fundamental of his work is that he believes that the alignment of the jaw has a major impact of the functionality of the overall body. Rob said the first time he saw me he hoped I did not have any injury problems, as he could see I had major postural issues. He commented 'that it was like I was stuck in a bad dance move’! I asked Rob what the next steps were and if there was anything I could do whilst in Greece to help my situation. He explained that if I decided to undertake any holistic dental treatment that it was potentially a 4-year process with lots of testing initially. In the short-term he advised me on stretching and my diet. 

At the end of 2004, I undertook several tests and started having holistic dentistry treatment with Rob. I had spoken to several dentists, physiotherapists and doctors and all of them advised against the process but something inside me believed in Rob and I felt I had to give it a go. A big part of my decision was based on the 10 years prior to meeting Rob where I had seen a range of different injury specialists without feeling I made any significant progress. 

Rob diagnosed the root of my injury problems as a genetic overbite in my mouth, which appears to have been made worse by having teeth removed at the age of 10. Removing teeth is a typical method of dealing with a crowded mouth by most western dentists that holistic dentists would advise against in most situations. Rob said my overbite was leading to poor posture and my feet having to work much harder than they should be to keep me upright. 

Over nearly 4 years I had various braces and dramatically changed the alignment of my jaw. The first part of the treatment involved expanding the jaw out with an internal brace. The second part of the treatment involved an external brace straightening my teeth. I also had to wear a device to bring the bottom jaw forward to correct my overbite. I still wear a dental retainer every night to keep everything in place. I was left with 4 gaps where my teeth were removed at the age of 10 and have 4 bridges in place to fill those gaps. Going through the treatment was very difficult at times, but it has been life changing. I am now in mid-40s and since the treatment I had been able to coach tennis full-time and get back to playing competitive tennis. I still pick-up occasional injuries and still have to work every day to maintain and develop my posture, strength and flexibility.