Many Americans suffer from the temporomandibular joint disorder but oftentimes do not seek treatment. Since TMJ disorder is easily aggravated by many normal daily tasks, it can be difficult to avoid. Anyone who suffers from TMJ syndrome should seek treatment with Dr. David Frey in Beverly Hills, CA, as this can lead to other serious medical conditions.
Temporomandibular Joint Disorder is a disorder of the temporomandibular joint located in the jaw. TMJ causes discomfort and pain that can either be intermittent or chronic. Symptoms are often overlooked as signs of stress, causing the disorder to go untreated. Failure to get TMJ treated may have serious lifelong consequences.
The temporomandibular joint disorder is misunderstood or underappreciated by many dentists. This can lead to misdiagnoses of conditions such as migraine headaches or neck and upper back pain. While TMJ is not a condition that is life-threatening or permanently disfiguring, it can have a very serious impact on your quality of life. Chronic jaw pain, headaches, ringing in your ears, and difficulty chewing and biting aren’t issues to shrug off; they merit the full attention of a temporomandibular joint expert such as Dr. Frey. Why settle for chronic pain and a diminished quality of life?
You don’t simply wake up one day and have the temporomandibular joint disorder. It can actually start during childhood, and this is evidenced by mouth breathing. This points to a misaligned jaw. Those would be congenital causes.
TMJ can lead to chronic pain. It’s most common in younger people, between the ages of 20 and 40, occurring more in women than men. These are the typical TMJ symptoms, and symptoms related to TMJ:
The three components of your bite — the teeth, the masseter muscles, and the temporomandibular joint — all must work together for the correct function. When the three are working together, you don’t have any facial or jaw pain and chewing is silent. But when one of the three components creates alignment problems, this leads to problems with the bite that will create pain in the jaw and face that can also radiate down into the neck and shoulders.
The pain is due to the continued stress of the misaligned jaw trying to find alignment. Considering we use our jaws and the temporomandibular joint almost continually for eating, talking, breathing during exertion, and even yawning, the constant pressure caused by misalignment creates overused muscles and tension. This muscle movement leads to pain originating in the joint and spreading outward.
A period of new stress, maybe in a job or relationship, can cause a person to clench his or her teeth at night. This can result in TMJ getting worse. Another reason can be poor posture in the neck and upper back, which creates neck strain and problems with jaw muscle function. This could be the case when a person is having to do an increased amount of computer work, and they aren’t paying attention to their posture.
These generally aren’t acute pain conditions, however. TMJ doesn’t develop overnight; it is more in line with chronic pain conditions.
For more aggressive cases of TMJ, treatments such as surgery or injections may be used as treatment. Dr. Frey utilizes a two-phase neuromuscular orthodontic treatment for his TMJ patients.
Whether or not TMJ can resolve on its own varies dramatically between people. For some, they may be in the midst of an incredibly stressful time in their life. When these stressors resolve, the patient may stop grinding his or her teeth and the TMJ may go away. But if the jaw is out of alignment, the condition needs treatment. How to cure TMJ permanently may be as simple as creating a custom night guard to wear while sleeping to stop teeth grinding and clenching, or treatment may be much more involved. Every case is unique. In extreme cases, surgery could be necessary.
A misaligned bite can lead to TMJ and there’s little you can do about it other than having Dr. Frey bring things into alignment. But for other causes, or to prevent a relapse, we give patients these exercises to do at home:
Our office is in-network with all major insurance providers. Please bring your insurance card to each appointment so we can make sure your information is as up-to-date as possible.
