Does your jaw pop when you chew? Does it get tired after eating? Do you have headaches or neck aches? It may be a disorder related to the joint between your jaws called the temporomandibular joint or TMJ.
TMJ Disorder can do more than cause pain. It can also cause excessive wear on your teeth, leading to cracks, breaks, and chips. It’s a painful condition that can get worse over time, but there are ways to help relieve your TMJ pain.
Zombek Orthodontics can help realign your jaws and bite with braces treatment, relieving pressure and pain on your joint. It can also help save your smile.
TMJ Disorder, often just called TMJ or TMD in short, relates to the misalignment and wearing down of the joint between your maxillary (upper jaw) and mandible (lower jaw). The joint’s primary purpose is to move up and down, but there is flexibility that allows it to move from side to side. This allows us to grind food between our molars (back teeth).
The ends of the mandible, called the mandibular heads, are meant to fit a certain way in the concave joints of the skull, called the mandibular fossa. The articular disk, a piece of tissue, is a cushion between the bones and keeps them from rubbing against each other.
If the jaws are not aligned properly, they can move around that disk and rub against each other. The friction between the bones can wear them down and cause pain in the surrounding ligaments and nerves.
What are some of the most common TMJ symptoms?
These symptoms may be subtle initially but worsen over time without treatment as the joint wears down. TMJ pain can make it difficult to bite and chew, leading to digestive problems. Misaligned jaws can also cause breathing problems, leading to sleep apnea and snoring. Both of these can affect your overall health.
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, consult your dentist or orthodontist. The sooner these problems are diagnosed and treated, the less damage to your joints will occur.
How do you get TMJ pain in the first place? Some people are born with abnormalities of the jaw that can develop into TMJ pain. In other cases, TMJ can come from bad habits. Here are some of the ways you can get TMJ disorder:
Some causes are easier to treat than others, but there are ways to treat TMJ Disorder.
Can braces cause TMJ, or can braces help TMJ? Braces may cause temporary pain in your jaws as your teeth begin to move, but they won’t cause TMJ disorder. However, they can help, as can other methods of treatment.
Many people get TMJ from grinding their teeth. A mouthguard or nightguard may help stop the teeth grinding and reduce TMJ pain for those patients. You can have a mouthguard made professionally or purchase an over-the-counter guard called a “boil and bite” mouthguard.
With these mouthguards, you boil the plastic to soften it, then bite down and let it cool to custom-mold the mouthguard to your teeth.
Some people are able to relieve their TMJ pain through therapeutic jaw pain exercises. These exercises can include touching their tongue to the roof of their mouth and relaxing their jaw to let it rest.
Another exercise is to hold your fingers on each joint while slowly opening and closing your mouth. This helps build up your jaw muscles and reduce fatigue. By pressing your fingers to the joints, you can hold them in proper alignment, which builds up the muscles correctly.
Treatment with braces or Invisalign can also relieve your TMJ pain. Braces treatment can realign your jaws and bite and reduce the pressure on your temporomandibular joints.
Braces treatment also puts your teeth in their proper places. Misaligned teeth put extra pressure on your jaw joints. This can wear down the joints as well as the teeth.
Braces or Invisalign treatment from Zombek Orthodontics can reduce that pressure by putting your teeth and jaws where they belong. This reduces the pressure on your jaws and your teeth and reduces wear on both.
Patients undergoing orthodontic treatment for TMJ find less pain and jaw fatigue once their teeth are straight. They can also chew better and breathe properly with aligned teeth and jaws.
TMJ pain can make it difficult to eat, speak, and even breathe properly. It can also worsen over time if not treated. Orthodontic treatment may be an excellent solution for your TMJ pain.
Schedule an appointment with Zombek Orthodontics for TMJ pain treatment. We can evaluate your teeth and jaws and determine how to ease your TMJ pain best.
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