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Canwest News Service
He is just a little bit terrified of the power he believes he possesses. It is a power that comes with incredible responsibility, and it can be applied to perform sporting good or unspeakable sporting evil.
It could even be capable of curing what ails the Toronto Maple Leafs, of resurrecting the Blue Jays, of fixing the Argonauts and of propelling the Raptors to an NBA crown. Or else, damning all four of Toronto's big four teams to further miseries and future missed playoff berths.
Such is the power that Dr. Anil Makkar, a 48-year-old portly, bubbly, small-town dentist from Truro, N.S., believes he possesses.
"I can control the performance of an athlete through their bite," Dr. Makkar says, laughing, not like an evil genius, but like a tooth-polisher who has invented an allegedly performance-enhancing mouthguard — yes, a mouthguard — that is fast becoming a must-have item among elite athletes.
"I could make you as flexible as you want, give you the most balance that you would ever want, or make you the crappiest player that you would ever want, which absolutely scares me."
It sounds down right diabolical, this newfangled device designed to increase strength, balance and flexibility simply by aligning the lower jaw with the neck and spine, which relaxes the muscles in the face, and allows an athlete to tap their inner core strength. Dr. Makkar's mouthguard comes in an assortment of colours, requires a custom fitting and costs up to $2,000.
Skeptical? Almost everybody is, at first, including the inventor himself.
The dentist was just doing what dentists do when a lobster fisherman with a crooked bite walked in to his office, almost four years ago now, complaining of chronic headaches.
"When people don't put their teeth together their muscles get imbalanced and it triggers other parts of the body to compensate, and that can cause headaches, dizziness, vertigo, neck pain, hip problems," he says. "And one of the things we do is we make a special appliance that goes over their lower teeth and it gives them the right bite."
Other than a follow-up appointment, the bite plate tends to be the end of the story. But with the fisherman it was just a beginning. Two days later, the man returned saying his headaches were gone, but he said the weird part about it was out on the water, tossing those heavy lobster traps into the Atlantic.
"He says to me," says Dr. Makkar, " 'With this thing in my mouth, it feels like I'm tossing paper in the water.' "
Dr. Makkar laughed it off, though he did not forget. Another patient with crippling migraines was fitted to align her bite soon after. Her headaches disappeared too, and, similar to the fisherman, she told Dr. Makkar she felt like the Incredible Hulk when she scooped up the car seat with her six-month old in it.
"I am a sports freak, I love sports," says Dr. Makkar, whose basement is packed with memorabilia, including a baseball autographed by Joe DiMaggio.
So, the sports nut got to thinking. What if his patients were not just deliriously happy about curing their headache problems? What if there was actually something to their claims of increased strength, and what if the dental appliance had something to do with it? And what if he invented something that would align an athlete's bite. If Joltin' Joe could have popped one into his famous mug would his hitting streak have stopped at 56 games?
It was crazy to consider, and Dr. Makkar was curious enough to act. Working with a fitness trainer as a guinea pig he fashioned the prototype that spawned the Makkar Pure Power Mouthguard (PPM), the secret weapon of choice for about 300 professional athletes, including Shaquille O'Neal, the undefeated New Orleans Saints, downhill king Bode Miller, Buffalo Bills receiver Terrell Owens, several PGA golfers, members of the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins and Jordan Tootoo, the pint-sized sparkplug with the Nashville Predators.
Tootoo has been wearing his fancy new mouthguard since training camp. He had heard a few stories about them, and was curious to give one a try. About 400 dental professionals across North America are now licensed to custom-fit for Dr. Makkar's device in computer-assisted sessions that take about two hours. One of those professionals just happened to be meeting with the Predators team dentist when Tootoo landed in the chair. And he thought, why not?
"I feel a little bit of difference in that I am able to breath better, because instead of clinching your jaw when you skate you can relax and put that energy into your muscles," Tootoo says. "And for me, personally, a lot of it has to do with what's in your mind. It is definitely a bonus to have."
Tootoo is not a big weight-lifter during the season, and he is convinced he is about 20% stronger in the gym than he was. That is how he feels, anyway, when he is wearing his mouthguard. A product, incidentally, that he is not paid to endorse, and neither is anybody else.
Golfer Scott McCarron was among the earliest adapters. His wife was suffering from headaches just like the lobster fisherman, and was outfitted with a Makkar device by a dentist in Reno, Nev. Her headaches soon disappeared. Her husband, meanwhile, was having his own headaches with his golf game. McCarron started the 2008 season by missing nine cuts in 14 tournaments. He thought, why not?
"I tried it," McCarron said in an interview with The Golf Channel posted on Dr. Makkar's website. "I felt stronger, more flexible, better balance. I felt like I hit the ball better. Sure enough, within the next couple weeks, I played the [2008] Canadian Open and finished fifth, and a couple weeks later I played Greensboro and finished second."
Dr. Makkar's latest little miracle, from a business standpoint, occurred on Monday Night Football during the New Orleans Saints-Atlanta Falcons telecast in early November. The Saints are Makkar men. So is Jon Gruden, the football analyst. With time winding down in a game the Saints would win, Gruden raved to the audience about the competitive edge the players had in their months.
The dentist could not believe his ears. And now Dr. Makkar has his eyes set on an even bigger challenge, if only Brian Burke would pick up the phone and give him a call.
"I will tell you right now, I would fit the Leafs for free," Makkar says, laughing his playful, power-mad laugh. "They need this. What have they got to lose? They are a good Canadian team. I want these guys to kick-ass."
joconnor@nationalpost.com
