TMJ Help Program

It’s amazing how such a small part of our anatomy can bring on a world of pain. The temporomandibular joint (TMJ), which connects the lower jaw to the head, depends on a network of bone, cartilage, muscles, ligaments and other anatomical necessities for the whole to operate smoothly – and without pain. The TMJ allows us to open and close our mouths, which in turn, translates to eating, speaking, yawning, singing, making facial expressions … many of the things we do with our mouths we don’t normally think much about. But when one or more of the TMJ’s components gets out of whack, that’s when things can get painful. Who Gets These Disorders? Although men do suffer from the symptoms, of the 5-to-15 percent of people in the United States who experience temporomandibular joint disorders (TMDs), studies have shown that around 90 percent of those are female. Researchers have suggested magnesium deficiencies, hormonal fluctuations, even the way women process pain signals, among other reasons, as to why women tend to be far more prone to TMDs than men, but in truth, no one really yet knows for sure. Common Symptoms Pain and/or clicking or popping sounds when opening or closing the mouth are the most common complaints with TMDs. Pain or tenderness can be felt in or around the ear, neck, face, and in the joint itself and may be expressed as headaches, earaches, even shoulder aches. Because some symptoms don’t readily appear to be related to the joint in question, TMDs often go undiagnosed or inaccurately diagnosed with the problem never being adequately or properly treated. Other symptoms include popping or clicking noises when the mouth is opened or closed, and sometimes the jaws actually lock wherein the sufferer is unable to either open or close the mouth at all or with great difficulty. Treatment Fortunately, a range of treatments exist for TMDs with surgery employed only as a last resort. Learning how to change certain behaviors such as grinding the teeth (bruxism), clenching the jaw muscles and chewing on hard objects or food (pencils, ice, etc.) may be recommended. Additionally, massage and stretching exercises can be taught to help alleviate or eliminate the pain. Heat, cold (ice packs) and over-the-counter pain relievers or anti-inflammatory medications may also be prescribed. Bite plates and night guards can be made by your dentist to also help by aligning your bite and to prevent bruxism that occurs when you’re sleeping. Other treatments also exist, depending upon your dental professional. Who Treats TMJ Disorders? Not all dentists treat TMDs.

The temporomandibular joint is the joint connecting your lower jaw to your skull bone and is responsible for its movement. Misalignment of the skull and the lower jaw results in a crooked bite.

There are various symptoms that can result from misalignment which make up a disorder affecting the joint known as TMJ or TMD. One of the most common complaints associated with TMJ is the dreaded headache or migraine. Read the rest of this entry »

In order to properly treat TMJ, there are numerous symptoms of TMJ that you should be conscious of so you can get the correct treatment to relieve the aching caused by this condition.

Are you experiencing a rare soreness in the part of your ears? Are you suffering a throat ache that doesn’t act as if it will leave and is not linked to a bout with the flu or tenderness of the ducts? Are youshowing} speech irregularity that cannot be corrected by therapeutic instruction?

Actually, these manifestations may be originated by an ailment referred as temporomandibular joint disorder, or more popularly known as TMJ.

You may have ran into the term TMJ displayed on the treatment centers of dentists all over the capital, but don’t be guided to deem that TMJ is an ailment that concerns the teeth. In contrast, TMJ includes the temporomandibular joint, that part which connects the lower chin to the head. TMJ doesn’t pick out a particular problem, instead, it is a general term that covers various troubles of the temporomandibular joint.

If you are having any of the following indicators, it would be better to think about the probality that you have TMJ:

- Headaches. Given the nearness of the temporomandibular joint to the parts where headaches become apparent, headaches along with any of the other indicators mentioned below can inform on the presence of TMJ.

- Otalgia, also known as earache. Again, given the closeness of the temporomandibular joint to the ear, pains in the said part are to be anticipated if the joint suffers any troubles.

- Ostensibly permanent speech irregularity. Regardless our conscious targets, if we slur words we’re expected to speak out with clarity, and if such cannot be corrected by speech rehabilitation, it might be a strong sign of TMJ.

- Toothache. Toothache can be stimulated by a diversity of reasons, ranging from tooth decay, to the birth of a buried tooth, to gum dilemmas, to concrete damages. Still, when the toothache isn’t caused by any of the abovementioned probabilities, the TMJ is the most possibly reason.

- Tooth mobility, or worse, tooth loss. TMJ can apply extreme burden on the teeth, making them to easily be removed from their root.

TMJ isn’t a critical sickness. Nonetheless, if left ignored, it will only worsen and its indicators will become more terrible. Such can brutally change the existence of the patient.

There are many medications for TMJ, and none of them are invasive. Some medications may entail quite a bit of sufferings from the patient, but the prize will be a lifespan of freedom from this furtively inconvenient condition.

Understanding what a TMJ splint is

Patients with TMJ may have heard of the TMJ splint, also known as a appliance or mouth guard. It sounds like a good and efficient device but in many patients, it not only fails to relieve pain but can even make it worse in some cases

The explanation for this is quite simple. There are many underlying causes for TMJ, some of which may still be unknown. Therefore, in many cases of TMJ, the mouth guard may not be very effective because of the root of the problem, as in cases of a past history of trauma to the jaw area.
Many of these underlying causes also result in a deviation of the lower jaw. In these cases, the jaw fails to open or close normally because of the weakness and tension of the surrounding muscles.

A TMJ splint won’t work in this sort of condition because of the bite being crooked. Pain won’t be relieved permanently because the splint acts by keeping the mouth open for long durations of time. This will only cause temporary believe and will not succeed in keeping the pain at bay in the long run.
In advanced cases of TMJ, where arthritis has developed, the splint may actually end up worsening the symptoms instead of relieving them. It will then be painful to close the mouth and the end result may be having to keep your mouth in almost permanently open state.

While TMJ mouth guards may provide temporary relief, the long term side effects overshadow their temporary benefits. The true means to treat TMJ is to attack the root of the problem instead of using the equivalent of a disposable band-aid.

The symptoms of TMJ can be many and variable. This article examines the commonest five complaints patients with TMJ present with as well as some methods to relieve these symptoms.
Some of the commonest symptoms of TMJ include :

1. Painful jaw or jaw muscles: One of the absolute commonest symptoms in TMJ patients. This symptom results from weakness and damage of the jaw joint causing the reflex spasm of the muscles surrounding it. This pain is severe and may last for long periods ranging from days to weeks.

2.Headaches: These result from the pain being referred from the jaw muscles’ spasm where the pain extends up around the ear and back to the posterior part of the head leading to severe headaches.

3. Sounds such as clicking or popping when moving the jaw: These usually occur on top of some sort of traumatic damage to the jaw. Most types of trauma will eventually cause the jaw joint to produce these sounds over time as well as the characteristic locking of the jaw at certain positions during motion.

4.Toothaches: This is a misnomer because it isn’t really your teeth that are aching but it’s the flaring up of the nerves around your teeth because of the pain radiating from your jaw joint. It commonly occurs at the back part of the mouth.

5. Ear Pain- Again, this is a misnomer. It’s also pain radiating from your affected TMJ causing the nerves near the ear canal to produce pain.

These are the commonest TMJ disorder symptoms in brief. If you have any or some of these symptoms, try to consult a physician as soon as possible because you’re likely to develop even more symptoms over time.

There are many options for treatment from pain killers to surgical procedures. Exercises have minimal side effects and have proven to be greatly beneficial, so its better if you consult your doctor about these exercises before choosing something as radical as surgery.

I was tweeting back and forth with a TMJ sufferer on Twitter today (you can follow me here @tmjhelp) about TMJ treatments. I was explaining this person that I do not believe in prescribed medication for TMJ. I do believe that drugs can ease the pain for a while, but drugs will not cure your TMJ!

This person was telling me he had been on medication for a few years but it didn’t change anything and didn’t improve his TMJ.

After exchanging a few tweets, this user asked me what I thought was best. At this point, I told him that I wrote a TMJ ebook with TMJ exercises. He was really excited about my exercises. I gave him a couple exercises to practice and after a while, he asked me where he could get a copy of my ebook.

So I directed him to www.TMJ-Help.org so he can buy his own copy of the TMJ Help Program. He obviously checked out the site and got back to me a little later saying: “Not into a $49 ebook… I much prefer a $0 prescription”

I replied that it was fine. I didn’t even try to convince this person. It is so sad that some people still think that drugs will make them feel better. I don’t care much about these people. One day hopefully, they will realize that they’ve been wasting their time taking drugs that don’t do anything but masking the symptoms.

I was reading the news when I found this article about a California dentist that definitely took a whole different approach to treating TMJ. Here is a snippet:

Anderson, 49, has already been stripped of his dentist license, an action taken by the state in October, 2007, after his arrest by Woodland police. In the license revocation hearing, his civil attorney argued Anderson’s practice of sometimes giving chest massages to women patients was an effort to relieve the pain from those suffering Temporomandibular Joint disorder, or TMJ.

In hearing documents, however, one patient claimed Anderson complimented her on breast implants. He also apologized, via greeting card and telephone conversations, to some women patients who complained to him about what they believed was inappropriate touching.

“Massaging the breast of female patients is not within the scope of the practice of dentistry in any circumstance,” said Deputy Attorney General Jeff Phillips at the time.

A civil attorney representing one patient also took issue with Anderson’s defense of giving massages for pain relief.

“He was touching her because he was interested if she had breast augmentation and how the breast implants felt,” said attorney Noel Ferris. “He wasn’t talking about any muscle problem.”

Clearly not the way I recommend…

Temporomandibular joint disorders, TMJ for short, are among the most common chronic pain syndromes in the United States. The focal point where the skull bone and jaw bone interconnect, with assistance by the absorber disc, muscles and joints, function normally like a well oiled machine. Unfortunately this harmony can be disrupted by a multitude of reasons and then TMJ is one of possible consequences. The statistics verify that a predominant number of such disorders are acquired and not hereditary, therefore some relief must be possible and available to the sufferers, without a complicated and potentially lengthy and painful surgical procedure.

Your dental specialist for TMJ dysfunction in Clearwater can assist you with this malady and help you heal and overcome this painful ailment. The first important step is to have your dental professional run diagnostic tests with you, in order to recognize which cause led to the TMJ disorder. By diagnosing the cause, treatment options can be established and the healing process can begin. Treatment options can range from insertion of a custom fabricated intra oral orthotic, more commonly known as the splint, physical therapy, medication, up to stress management. The appropriate treatment combination can be evaluated and prescribed by your TMJ dysfunction specialist.

So what’s all this talk about the bite mean? What I tell patients at our Savannah TMJ dentistry is that there’s more to your bite than just how the teeth fit together. It is also where the position of your lower jaw is when the biting happens. Think about someone who may have perfectly straight teeth, but in order to get them to bite together the person has to shift her jaw over to the right. This is also a bad bite… straight teeth, but bad jaw position. Read the rest of this entry »

Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMJ) is a condition that may be suffered by more than 30 million Americans. Sometimes called “the Great Imposter” for its ability to masquerade as other conditions, TMJ can result in symptoms as diverse as sleep disorders, facial pain, back pain, tooth pain, ringing in the ears, and tingling or numbness in the extremities. Read the rest of this entry »