What TMJ Therapy Is the Most Effective?
The temporomandibular joint is a sliding hinge connecting your jawbone to your skull. One joint exists on each side of your jaw. TMJ disorder, a version of temporomandibular joint disease or TMD, causes pain in the jaw joint and the muscles controlling the jaw movement.
The precise reason for TMJ pain isn’t apparent and is challenging to determine. However, the pain and discomfort associated with TMJ disorders are relatively mild or periodic that improve by themselves within a few months or weeks.
What Causes TMJ Disorders?
As explained earlier, determining the exact reasons for your TMJ disorder is challenging. However, it can be due to various factors like genetics, arthritis, and jaw injury. For example, you may have jaw pain if you grind and clench your teeth, but not everyone habitually grinding and clenching their teeth develop TMJ disorders.
TMJ Disorder Causes
The temporomandibular joint has a hinge action with sliding movements. The parts of the bones interacting with the joint are covered with cartilage and separated by a tiny shock-absorbing disk which generally maintains smooth movement. You can develop discomforting TMJ disorders if disk erosion causes it to move out from its correct alignment, arthritis damages the joints, or impacts or blows damage the joint. Unfortunately, the reasons for TMJ disorders aren’t apparent in many cases.
When to Seek Medical Help?
If having persistent pain or tenderness in your jaw or find it challenging to open and close your jaw entirely, you must seek TMJ/TMD treatment in St Armands for relief. However, if the pain isn’t discomforting and you don’t face challenges with clicking sounds in the jaw, you don’t need treatment for TMJ disorders.
Symptoms of TMJ Disorders
TMJ disorder signs and symptoms can include pain or tenderness in the jaw, discomfort in one or both the temporomandibular joints, aching pain in and around your ear, difficulty and pain when chewing, aching facial pain, locking of your jaw joint, making it challenging to open and close your mouth. TMJ disorders also result in clicking or scratching sounds when opening your mouth or chewing.
TMJ Disorder Risk Factors
The elements that can increase the risk of TMJ disorders include different types of arthritis like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, jaw injury, long-term bruxism or grinding and clenching of teeth, and some connective tissue conditions causing problems and affecting the temporomandibular joint.
Diagnosing TMJ Disorders
When seeking treatment in St Armands for a TMJ disorder, the dentist in Sarasota will discuss your symptoms and evaluate your jaw. They will also listen and feel your jaw asking you to open and close your mouth. In addition, they will observe the movement of your jaw and press on areas around it to identify sites of pain and discomfort.
If the dentist suspects an issue, they may suggest dental x-rays to evaluate your teeth and jaw, CT scans to look at a comprehensive image of the bones in the joint, and MRI scans to disclose problems with the joint’s disk and the surrounding soft tissue.
Occasionally TMJ arthroscopy is also used in the diagnosis of TMJ disorders. During this process, a medical professional inserts a small thin cannula into the joint space with a tiny camera to view the area and help determine a diagnosis.
TMJ Treatment
As TMJ disorders improve by themselves, TMJ/TMD treatment near you may involve the most conservative and reversible treatments. Conservative treatments do not penetrate the facial tissues, jaw, or joint or entail surgery. Reversible therapies do not cause permanent changes to the structure or position of the jaw and teeth. Generally, conservative and reversible treatments are considered the most effective for TMJ disorders. Unfortunately, if TMJ problems worsen and become persistent and severe, moving towards aggressive treatment does not ensure improvement of the symptoms.
Please schedule a Consultation with Our Dental Office in Sarasota
Our dental office in Sarasota recommends conservative and reversible TMJ disorder treatments because chaos and controversy about TMJ treatments remain. The dentist advises you may get better on treatments or stay unaffected by them. On the other hand, the treatments might make you feel better or may even worsen the symptoms. Therefore before contacting any medical professional for an effective TMJ disorder treatment, it is beneficial to be informed and aware of what to expect from the therapy they offer.
Tarpon Shores Dental — St Armands provides TMJ/TMD treatments for many patients approaching them with jaw discomfort. They adopt conservative practices advising patients on the results they can expect before starting treatment. If you are affected by jaw pain and the problems associated, kindly contact them to receive a therapy that doesn’t affect your facial tissues or entails surgery.