TMJ refers to the Temporomandibular Joints. The joints that connects the lower jaw to the skull. While the abbreviation TMJ refers specifically to these joints, it is commonly used to refer to disorders that are associated with the joints. The disorder is actually called TMD, but since it is more commonly known as TMJ, that is the term we will use here. Read the rest of this entry »
Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, or TMJ as it is more commonly known, is a medical condition that involves a misalignment of the jaw joint and inflammation in the muscles that control it. It can be very painful and can lead to a host of other medical problems that may or may not involve the facial area of the body. Read the rest of this entry »
If you have been dealing with TMJ, or Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, for awhile, you may have spent some time researching this medical condition and looking for causes and treatments.
The one statement that you have probably run into time and again is that there is no known cure for TMJ at this time. This is because there is no one cause that can be pinpointed as being the major factor behind development of the disease. Read the rest of this entry »
There is no cure for TMJ. If you have been diagnosed with TMJ, your doctor may have told you that part of the problem is that you clench your teeth when you get stressed. At the very least, this habit probably aggravates your TMJ.
A dental device may be used, sometimes called a mouth guard to keep your teeth from grinding together. However, this is a not a cure, it is a remedy to the problem. If you are interested in maintaining the integrity of your teeth, it may still be worth it.
Your doctor was right when he/she told you that teeth clenching was aggravating your TMJ. You see, the jaw muscles are naturally tense anyhow. They are also very weak and any type of trauma or stress can set them out of alignment to the point that they can become very painful. Read the rest of this entry »
The temporomandibular joints, more commonly referred to as the TMJ, can be found in front of the ears, right at the spot where the upper jaw and lower jaw meets. Try to open your mouth. Feel the ball-like joints forming near your ears. Then close your mouth. Do you feel the bones moving? Those are the temporomandibular joints. TMJ’s are well used joints. You move it as you speak, eat, bite, or yawn. And it’s a set of complex joints too. When observed under the microscope, the joints are made up of complicated arrays of bones, tendons, and muscles.
As such, TMJ disorders are very common. TMJ disorders are characterized by the stiffness of the joints. It can also be associated to ear pain, headaches, bite problems, locked jaws, or clicking sounds. The worse that could happen is arthritis. TMJ can definitely lead to arthritis if the symptoms are not addressed right away. The underlying conditions of jaw arthritis and TMJ disorders would include teeth grinding, nail biting, gum chewing, teeth misalignment, dental problems, stress, and jaw trauma. If you suffer from any of these conditions, consult with your doctor right away to prevent arthritis.
The most common symptom of TMJ disorders would be recurring headaches. You may also experience facial pains every now and then. The pain could start on TMJ and then spread all over the face and the head. The condition may even get worse as you try to move your jaws. Expect the contraction of the jaws to be very painful. It could get worse if you are in a place where the weather or the surroundings are cold.
Most of TMJ disorder patients go through episodes of ear pain. There might not be signs of infection in the ears but the pain would be as intense. The pain may be concentrated right on the spot where the joints are located. So if your ears hurt but you don’t feel any pus, hearing loss, or infections in your ear, TMJ disorders might be causing the problem.
Grinding, clicking, crunching, and popping sounds are normal on people with TMJ problems. Severe pain may come together with the sounds as well. Episodes of dizziness are usually associated with the disorder too. Balance problems are also expected.
More severe conditions such as fullness of the ear and tinnitus may also occur. With these complications, the patient’s ears could feel muffled or clogged. This is usually felt with greater intensity when aboard the airplane, more particularly during takeoffs and landings.
TMJ disorders can be hard to diagnose. This is because both a dentist and a doctor have to test you for it. Dentists are tasked to treat the problem if it is caused by teeth imperfections. If not, then a doctor would step in. In worse cases, surgery may be required.
TMJ disorders can definitely cause arthritis in high risk patients. As such, you should never ignore the condition once you feel any type of pain in the ear area. Prompt diagnosis would spare you prolonged discomfort of the condition.
Proper treatment of TMJ disorder requires that the patient have a complete understanding of what TMJ is and what the possible causes are.
The medical term for the jaw joint is the temporomandibular joint. TMJ, or TMD, is the abbreviation for the condition known as Temporomandibular Joint Disorder. The temporomandibular joint is very unstable and can easily become misaligned. If this happens, the patient can experience a wide variety of symptoms, many of which can be very painful. Read the rest of this entry »
If you have TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder), you have probably looked for a long time for a treatment that will be effective in relieving your symptoms or even, a cure for TMJ. You probably also know that finding this magic treatment is almost impossible. Taking a close look at the symptoms, known causes, and available treatments may help you to understand the confusion and frustration that often surround TMJ. Read the rest of this entry »
TMJ (and TMD) stand for Temporomandibular Joint Disorder. This is the jaw joint, which can be felt if you place a finger in front of one ear and open your mouth. This a sensitive joint that can be knocked or slowly pulled out of alignment. Then a variety of uncomfortable and painful symptoms can arise:
• Clicking or popping noises in the jaw
• Bad headaches
• Jaw-joint pain
• Facial pain
• Reduced jaw mobility
• Neck and shoulder pain
• Earache
• Ringing in the ears
These are just a few of the symptoms and each TMD sufferer has a unique combination of symptoms, with unique relative severities. Some people resign themselves to a life of these painful symptoms, having tried many doctors and many medications to no effect. But if the symptoms have a dental cause, you need to consult a dentist, in particular, a neuromuscular dentist.
Neuromuscular Dentistry
Neuromuscular dentistry realigns the bite and puts the jaw joint into its ideal position. When this is done, the TMJ symptoms are usually relieved. There is a complex relationship between the jaw joint and its related structures (muscles, nerves, blood supply etc.) To be able to successfully diagnose and treat TMJ, a dentist needs post-graduate training, such as is offered at the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies (LVI).
This world-renowned school gives intensive theoretical and hands-on training in both cosmetic dentistry and neuromuscular dentistry. With this detailed knowledge, and with special diagnostic tools, an experienced neuromuscular dentist can tell you if your symptoms have a dental cause, and if they do, can treat them and their underlying conditions.
Causes of TMJ Disorder
The causes are not fully understood. The joint itself is a ball-and-socket joint with a cartilage pad cushioning the bones. It can be knocked out of alignment by an impact to the side of the head, such as you might receive in an auto or sports accident. In some cases it’s caused, or at least made worse, by a habit of teeth grinding. Alternatively, teeth grinding can be a symptom of TMJ.
Other contributing causes are arthritis, birth injury, and genetic conditions.
The jaw joints are operated by muscles, attached to the bones by tendons. Major nerves run through the whole area with many branches, extending even down to the fingers. Bones, tendons, muscles and nerves are nourished by a blood supply. When the joint is misaligned, and the upper and lower teeth come together in an incorrect way, bumping or rubbing against each other, the jaw muscles try to correct this. Over time, they get chronically strained, inflamed, and swollen. Swelling puts pressure on nerves, which gives you pain wherever that nerve is.
Factors which can exacerbate TMJ:
• Clenching teeth
• Grinding teeth
• Inability to relax
• Lack of sleep
• Poor diet
• Poor posture
• Stress
Treatment of TMJ
Dental diagnosis of TMJ uses specialized equipment like the K7 Evaluation System. It records jaw joint sounds, measures jaw movements, however miniscule, and diagrams muscle activity.
Use of a TENS unit (Transcutaneous Electro Neural Stimulation) will relax the jaw muscles and relieve pain. This new relaxed position gives the dentist information about direction of treatment, because the goal of treatment is to make this relaxed position permanent. By studying the detailed information gathered by the K7 system, a treatment plan is customized for you.
Your treatment will address the exact condition of your jaw joint, teeth, and gums and even take into account your personality and lifestyle habits. A neuromuscular dentist will focus on correcting your bite and may also work with you on some lifestyle issues.
Possible treatment measures are:
• A device to be worn during the night which prevents tooth grinding
• An orthotic worn all the time for a few months to retrain the jaw muscles
• Reshaping, repositioning or reconstruction of some teeth
• Anti-inflammatory medication
• Temporary diet changes to avoid hard or chewy foods
• At-home use of a TENS unit
• Hot or cold treatments to relax muscles and reduce pain
• Work on posture
In some cases, a massage therapist or psychological counselor or medical doctor may participate in treatment.
It’s hard to believe so many problems can originate from one joint in the body, but that’s why neuromuscular dentistry is so important. Once the jaw joint is in its proper place and the bite is realigned, many, if not all, of these symptoms will disappear.
You’ve probably been looking for a way to heal your TMJ for some time. You may have read several articles, visited dozens web sites and even read some books. And most likely, the conclusion of all your research is:
There is no reliable cure for TMJ!
The only thing doctors can do is give out strong pain relief medicines or muscle relaxation drugs. There is nothing else they can do.
Little by little, you get immune to the strong pain killers and other short term medications and they’ll stop working for you (if they ever did relief your pain in the first place).
Your dentists may try his best to help you by making a dental implant. These implants are mostly meant to save your teeth from grinding down. It is not a permanent cure and usually doesn’t relief the pain, although it may be well worth it to save your teeth.
So why has science failed you?
One of the reason why it has been so difficult to find cure for TMJ, is how complex this condition is. There is probably no single cause for all cases of TMJ. There are rather combinations of several causes. And the causes are probably both physical and emotional.
Some people begin to experience TMJ after an accident of some sort. Stress is an other trigger. But most of the time, doctors have no idea what really causes their patients TMJ. This can be very depressive for people who suffer this condition.
We do know that the Jaw joints are always misplaced in some way. It’s sometimes sever, other times it’s minor misplacement. The effects can be extremely painful and irritating at the same time…
• Clicking, popping jaw joints • Grating sounds • Jaw locking opened or closed • Extreme pain in cheek muscles • Uncontrollable jaw or tongue movements • Clenching or grinding at night • Discomfort or pain to any of these areas • Limited opening • Inability to open the jaw smoothly or evenly • Jaw deviates to one side when opening • Inability to “find bite” with teeth • Frequent, migraine type headaches
…are just few obvious symptoms. You may have some or all of them. Or non at all. Like I said, this is very complicated condition.
What we also know is that the muscles around the jaw are always tense. Sometimes they’re torn a little, sometimes they’re sore, but they’re always tense. Weak, tense muscles do not support the jaw in the right way and will actually push it out of position, making this big part of the problem.
This is similar to what happens with back problems. The back muscles are stiff and weak to begin with. Then something happens, which puts strain on the back. Maybe working in a wrong position or small injury. It didn’t really feel very bad in the beginning.
As self defense, the back muscles get tense to avoid the pain. This is unconscious and uncontrollable. That’s why you often see people with back problem walk bent. The back pain becomes chronic when, the tension in the back muscles actually push the spine out of place. What was only supposed to be temporarily pain relief has caused serious condition.
I’m telling you this because TMJ develops the same way.
Your TMJ may have began as minor problem like short period of intense feelings or light bump on the jaw. Then as your jaw muscles get more tens and push the jaw out of position, it has developed into a major condition.
This is the beginning of series of other problems.
The two jaw joints don’t work as a team any more. You may even be rubbing bone to bone. No wonder everything is stuck. And the pain is horrible. Constant torture.
Nerves get squeezed. Either directly by the misplaced jaw or the tense muscles around it. The same nerves lie around the jaw as the ears. The same nerves that control the balance system. That’s why you may experience dizziness or lack or balance for example?
No muscle is an island. They’re all connected, either directly or through the nerve system. If your jaw muscles get stiff, all the other muscles around it will tense up too. You’ve probably experienced your shoulders and neck become more tense, as your TMJ has grown worse. This is only one example.
You may not have noticed how all the small muscles in your head (including the throat muscles, tongue, and eyes) have more tension in them now than they did before. This is serious.
All this tension put together causes many of the secondary symptoms of TMJ. Including…
• balance problems, “vertigo”, dizziness, or disequilibrium • voice fluctuations • hissing, buzzing, ringing, or roaring sounds • blurring of vision • clogged, stuffy, “itchy” ears, feeling of fullness • tongue pain • frequent coughing or constant clearing of throat • arm and finger tingling, numbness and or pain • bloodshot eyes
…and hundreds of other secondary symptoms, you may or may not have experienced your self.
The only way to permanently cure TMJ, is to loosen up and strengthen the jaw muscles and also all the other muscles around the it.
This can be done using simple, jet very powerful exercises:
1)The jaw exercises strengthen and loosen up the jaw muscles directly. As you practice these exercises, the jaw muscles stops pushing the jaw into wrong position. Instead, it guides the jaw joints into right place and that way heals your TMJ.
2)Consider how close the tongue is to the jaw. It’s no wonder how important it is to remove any tension from this muscle. You do that using simple tongue exercises.
3)Most people never pay any attention to the muscles around the throat. These muscles play, however, a very important role in your body’s function and need to be fit. The throat exercises will do just that. (see secondary throat symptoms).
4)There is almost no separation between the neck and shoulders and jaw muscles. If one is stiff, the others tense up immediately. That makes the neck and shoulder exercises as important as the direct jaw exercises.
5)Don’t underestimate the importance of breathing. Lack of oxygen flow to muscles weakens them and makes them stiff. One more contributing factor to TMJ. The breathing exercises inflate your muscles with oxygen, giving them extra boost to heal.
These exercises have been practiced successfully by thousands of people suffering from TMJ and it still surprises me how effective they are, considering how many causes lie behind this complex condition.
But before you get your hope to high, I’m going to be brutally honest…
It varies a lot how quickly people receive relief using these exercises. Some people get healed almost over night. Others need up to 2 months to get acceptable results. You’ve been developing this condition for years (even if you just recently experienced the symptoms). So be patient waiting for results.
The exercises rebuild your jaw function little by little.
The the muscles around the jaw must first regain their old strength and flexibility. Then the jaw muscle will guide your jaw joints into their natural healthy position. This usually happens slowly and gradually.
If you’ve been researching TMJ for some time and how to treat it, you’ve probably found one overall statement from every reliable source:
There is no real cure for TMJ.
The only thing doctors can do is give out strong pain relief medicines or muscle relaxation drugs. There is nothing else they can do.
Little by little, you get immune to the strong pain killers and other short term medications and they’ll stop working for you (if they ever did relief your pain in the first place).
Your dentists may try his best to help you by making a dental implant. These implants are mostly meant to save your teeth from grinding down. It is not a permanent cure and usually doesn’t relief the pain, although it may be well worth it to save your teeth.
The traditional health system has no cure for TMJ!
You can’t really blame them tough.
TMJ is one of the most complex conditions you’ll ever find.
Every TMJ patient has different original causes for his or her condition. And not only one cause or accident. There are probably several contributing factors causing your pain. Both physical and emotional.
Overwhelming feelings like stress, grief, or intense anger are often basic triggers of TMJ. Injuries, like car accidents or sport injuries are another common triggers.
You may not even have noticed at all when your condition began to develop. Maybe you bumped into something but didn’t give it a second thought. Few days later you began to experience pain. Most often, there is no way to know the original trigger.
Okay, that’s enough. Lets talk about what we DO KNOW!
What we know for a fact about TMJ is, the jaw joints are always misplaced in some way. It doesn’t necessarily have to be complete misplacement (although sometimes it is). Small wrong misplacement can be enough. And the symptoms can be both nerve racking and painful…
• Jaw locking opened or closed • Uncontrollable jaw or tongue movements • Clicking, popping jaw joints • Clenching or grinding at night • Grating sounds • Inability to open the jaw smoothly or evenly • Jaw deviates to one side when opening • Inability to “find bite” with teeth • Limited opening • Frequent, migraine type headaches • Extreme pain in cheek muscles • Discomfort or pain to any of these areas
…are just few obvious symptoms. You may have some or all of them. Or non at all. Like I said, this is very complicated condition.
Another thing we know for a fact is, the jaw muscles are always very tense. It varies how painful they’re or if they’re torn but they’re always too tense. These weak, tense jaw muscles will push your jaw further out of position and make the problem worse.
This is similar to back problems. Most people who suffer from back problems have weak, tense muscles. The back problem may have started by using bad position when working, by minor injury, or something else that didn’t seem very serious at the time.
As self defense, the back muscles get tense to avoid the pain. This is unconscious and uncontrollable. That’s why you often see people with back problem walk bent. The back pain becomes chronic when, the tension in the back muscles actually push the spine out of place. What was only supposed to be temporarily pain relief has caused serious condition.
It’s no different with TMJ. Something that probably began as minor problem (maybe small bump on the jaw or period of intense feelings) is now becoming serious problem as the jaw muscles push on the jaw joints.
This, then leads to series of other problems.
Now the two jaw joints do not cooperate together. They’re unbalanced and uncontrollable. It shouldn’t really come as surprise that everything gets stuck. The pain is unbearable. It’s like begin constantly tortured.
Nerves get squeezed when the jaw joints are out of place. This is, for example, the reason many people suffering from TMJ experience loss of balance. The nerve system, controlling the jaw are directly connected to the nerves in the ear, where the function balancing your body takes place.
All the muscles in your body are connected. If one gets tense, all the muscles around that one become tense too. You’ve probably, for example, felt your shoulders and neck get stiffer as your TMJ grows worse.
Less noticeable is the tension in all the small muscles in your head. Including your other face muscles, tongue, throat and even eyes. You may also feel like your throat is narrower now than before (you’re not crazy it’s true).
You don’t have to imagine all the secondary symptoms this indirect tension from the jaw is creating. You’re experiencing some or all of them yourself…
• voice fluctuations • sore throat without infection • swallowing difficulties • bloodshot eyes • tongue pain • balance problems, “vertigo”, dizziness, or disequilibrium • feeling of foreign object in throat • clogged, stuffy, “itchy” ears, feeling of fullness • watering of the eyes
…plus endless other secondary symptoms, some people experience but others don’t.
The only way to reverse the development of TMJ and heal your self is to loosen up and strengthen both the jaw muscles and all the muscles around the jaw.
This does actually not require hard effort tough. The exercises are simple and easy to do. But you have to practice them if they’re are going to work for you.
1)The jaw exercises strengthen and loosen up the jaw muscles directly. As you practice these exercises, the jaw muscles stops pushing the jaw into wrong position. Instead, it guides the jaw joints into right place and that way heals your TMJ.
2)Consider how close the tongue is to the jaw. It’s no wonder how important it is to remove any tension from this muscle. You do that using simple tongue exercises.
3)You probably noticed how many of the secondary symptoms had something to do with the throat. You’ll feel a whole lot better after you practise the throat exercises for few days.
4)The neck and shoulder muscles are directly connected to the Jaw muscles. These muscles are usually the first one to freeze when the jaw muscles get stiff. They can, however, easily be put back into regular function using powerful neck and shoulder exercises.
5)All muscles need oxygen to function properly. Stiff muscles, reduce the amount of oxygen they can process. Using specially designed breathing exercises, you can bring these muscles back to life, so they may begin to function properly again. Most people who practice these exercises claim to get really good relief from them. Many totally heal their TMJ permanently. This is amazing, considering how complicated this condition is.
But before you celebrate, let me be brutally honest with you.
This will most likely take some time and effort. The exercises take less than 10 minutes a day on the average. But you must commit to them for some period of time. Some people literally get healed over night but that’s not the norm.
Your TMJ has been developing for years (even if the symptoms just showed up). So give the training few weeks. Even couple of months.
The muscles around the jaw must regain their old strength and flexibility. So must the jaw muscle itself. But that’s not enough. The jaw muscles must guide and lock the jaw joints into natural healthy position. This happens little by little (often fraction of an inch a day).
