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What is it?
TMJ stands for temporomandibular joint. This is the joint where your lower jaw meets your skull. You have two of them one on each side of your face about where your ear is. This is your most flexible joint allowing for a tremendous range of motion. Because of this, if a poor bite or trauma to the face disrupts the balance between the two joints, a wide variety of symptoms can develop. These symptoms are collectively called temporomandibular disease or TMD.
What are the symptoms? - Pain in the joint or joints when you open
- Neck pain
- Back pain
- Nausea or vomiting
- Dizziness
- Pain radiating to the eyes, cheeks, or temples
- Facial swelling
- Toothaches
- Ringing in your ears
- Headaches
- Popping or clicking in the joint
- A cracking heard in your ear
- Pain when you open or close
- Tenderness near your ear
- Pain when you chew
- Locking of your jaw either open or closed
- Tingling or burning mouth/throat
- Chronic fatigue
What causes it?
There are many causes. Any one or a combination of them can cause symptoms. These include the following: - Trauma to the jaw or face.
- Poor bite or alignment of the jaw
- Injury to the joint
- Arthritis
- Poor posture
- Abnormal curve of the spinal column
- Holding unusual positions (computer)
- Mouth breathing
- Yawning or opening too wide
- Stress
- Grinding your teeth
How can it be treated? The treatment for TMD is different for each person because the cause is different for each person. Only a qualified doctor like Dr. Burba can diagnose and treat the symptoms of TMD. These treatments need to be tailored to each patient to eliminate the underlying cause of the problem not just mask the pain. Some treatments are relatively simple like pain medications and or muscle relaxants, heat, physical therapy, and stress reduction therapy. Other treatments such as wearing a night guard and adjusting your bite require more time and effort to fine tune. Still the treatments may take months or as much as a year to be fully effective. Some patients may even require surgery to correct some damage to the joint before complete relief is realized. Millions of Americans suffer from TMD and every patient is different. We need to work together over a number of visits to discover what had caused your symptoms and how best to treat your particular case.
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