Ways to Help TMJ

Do you have frequent pain in the jaw or facial area? You may have heard of the disorder called TMJ. This pain can be healed by a specialist for TMJ.

TMJ is the abbreviation for temporomandibular joint disorder and is a blanket term for a variety of joint disorders that can cause pain in the jaw and face, as well as difficulty chewing, earaches, and a popping sound when moving the jaw. Causes are numerous but the most common are grinding of the teeth at night, often without being aware of doing so, and trauma caused by something like a car accident. Because of the location that this disorder occurs it is in the domain of several forms and branches of the medical practice such as dentistry, neurology, and orthopedics. Because of this overlap there are many treatment approaches to TMJ and this makes choosing a specialist for TMJ difficult at times.

Specialists for TMJ use a variety of methods for repairing the damage done by TMJ as well as fixing the TMJ itself. Some cases can be cured with the fixing of destruction or natural defects on the face of the occlusal parts of the teeth. Occlusion of the teeth is about how your teeth in your jaw come together with the teeth attached to your skull. If the fit is not right it can cause a lot of stress on your TMJ which could lead to a TMJ disorder. To correct the occlusal fit of the teeth the doctor either carefully grinds your teeth to remove some of the surface area or uses a filling type of application to add to the face of any tooth that is not making contact.

Another method of treatment specialists for TMJ use is called a splint. These are more commonly referred to as mouth guards, or more specifically night guards. These are like mouth pieces used in sports but shaped specifically to be worn comfortably in the user's sleep. Like the occlusal surface treatment this is intended to correct teeth grinding at night. Both the occlusal surface treatment and the mouth guards can be furthered with the use of typical pain killers. Pain killers are commonly used in correlation with almost all of the other treatments used by specialists for TMJ.

Often the use of treatments that stop the grinding can correct the symptoms of TMJ for a time, but after a while the effects of the treatment can wear off or the treatment can begin to become less effective. One of the numerous long term treatments used by specialists for TMJ is a surgery that is similar to the surgery used for comparable disk related injuries in the spine. This is always used by specialists for TMJ as an absolute last resort because it is still roughly experimental and does not always have success.

Another of the long term treatments is to try and correct bad oral habits like the grinding of the teeth instead of using the physical barrier like the night guard. This method could also be applies to bad posture in the head and neck. Specialists for TMJ go about changing people's bad habits by using a something called a biofeedback device. This device gives verbal or negative feedback whenever it detects that the user is repeating his or her bad habit.

You should also know that if your condition is caused by grinding your teeth in your sleep because of stress you will need to find a therapeutic treatment for your stress. Otherwise you will be destroying any gains you make with your TMJ treatments every night in your sleep.

Hopefully this information has clarified for you the symptoms, causes, and treatments of TMJ disorder and liberated you to choose your specialist for TMJ wisely.