About me

Norbert Vogel tells us about himself 
Biographical data:

From 2011 Master approval for TMD functional appliance and independent work

Biographical information relating to how I ended up focusing on TMD / TMJ issues.

At 58 years old, I resigned from my well-paid position as a laboratory manager in a large orthodontic practice. Employment with Prof. Frankel (developmental biologist and orthodontist: he has accompanied me for my entire professional life) resulted in setting my sights on functional orthopedics. It is someone you just can’t get away from: you just become more and more critical of mechano-therapy. In orthodontics, too much is done which is best not thought about too much, and which does not stand up to the systemic comparison with principles from developmental biology, and often may even contradict it. Although I loved my profession, I became increasingly unhappy.

I didn’t have a plan of what to do with myself going forwards. Coincidences were what then determined the further course of my life. A senior consultant at Bonn University, once an assistant employed at the same workplace as me, asked me to give a lecture on functional appliances (Frankel devices). It was not for students, however, but rather for clinicians (Prof. Jäger, a couple of doctors and assistants). I didn’t want to make a fool of myself and so delved deeper into the subject matter. This is how I first acquired an understanding to be in a position to justify modifying (improving) the functional appliance. From there, I began experimenting on myself with functional appliances in order to eliminate or be able to reduce my own facial pain. The issue of TMD / TMJ has been on my mind for many years now. I have out different fixed appliance concepts on myself, including diagnostics-intensive (computer-aided) concepts, all with moderate to no success. My facial pains and disc problems persisted.

Even though the doctors in Bonn only wanted an event to add continuing training credits, i.e. better to operate than using early treatment with functional appliances, I have immensely benefited from it.

I have resolved my facial pain and orthopedic problems and the certification from Prof. Hunter that I gave a sound, scientifically-based lecture conferred me my title of expert. This was the basis for me to start actually being able to manufacture appliances.

Working with Dr. Martin Reif, the appliance that resolved all of my pain was clinically tested in his practice on twenty patients, and further refined. After one year of testing with consistently positive feedback, the device got its name,

 “Relaktor”

and we jointly filed for its patents. We now have patent protection and the appliance is registered as a trademark.

Now I am 66 years old and take great pleasure in working in the field of minimally-invasive functional orthopedics. Clinical experience from around 150 patients has confirmed that I am on the right path. My focus has only become even more focused on the orthopedic field. I have learned a lot about myofunctional therapy, and for me this has been the most important aspect of my work: I don’t cause harm to anybody. Looking at adult patients suffering with pain in the context of developmental biology makes the structural shortcomings of conventional medicine/speech therapy apparent. This is what considerably detracts from the delights of the field, and it is frustrating that conventional medicine offers no support in this respect. On the other hand, it is in this way that the
TMD / TMJ issue is virulent regarding the shortcomings of conventional medicine.

Öhringen, on November 7, 2017