UNDERSTANDING TMJ DISORDER: SYMPTOMS, CAUSES, AND DIAGNOSIS

TMJD, or temporomandibular joint disorder, is a problem that causes pain and tenderness in the jaw joints and surrounding muscles and ligaments. The known causes of the issue include teeth grinding, injuries, or everyday problems. The treatment given for the same is with a customized approach, as the reason can be different for everyone. It includes physical exercises, a customized mouth guard, and surgery in critical cases.

What is TMJ disorder?

TMJ dysfunction is a specific condition that affects the jaw joint, surrounding muscles, and ligaments. Individuals with this issue face jaw pain, headaches, and problems with body movement.

Types of TMJD:

• Jaw joint disorder
• Issues with the chewing muscles
• Headaches caused by TMJ

What are the symptoms of TMJ disorder?

• Pain in the jaw
• Facial pain along with shoulder or neck pain
• Stiffness in your jaw
• Problems with opening and closing
• Popping sound during jaw movements
• Headaches, earaches, and toothaches
• Sometimes you can feel tooth sensitivity as well.

These are all the common symptoms visible in people with TMJ disorder.

Causes of Temporomandibular joint disorder

• In prior TMJ disorders, the major cause is an injury to the jaw, head, or neck.
• When there is a bad habit of continuous teeth grinding or clenching makes the TMJ worse.
• Osteoarthritis is also a cause of temporomandibular joint disorder.
• Bade habits of chewing things that strain the muscles make it worse.
• Misalignment of teeth is also a cause of temporomandibular joint disorder.

Things that make the TMJ disorder worse

• When you use your teeth as a tool for cutting and tearing
• When there is continuous pressure on the facial muscles due to bad posture
• Bad chewing habits like chewing on a pen or pencil
• Eating excessive ice
• Sleeping on the stomach
• Anytime clenching or grinding of the jaw

Diagnosis of temporomandibular joint disorder

1. Clinical examination: a temporomandibular joint specialist will help you with this, where they ask the patient about the pain, stiffness, or swelling near the jaw. This will have an impact on jaw movement, which is also assessed by the doctor including jaw movements and listening to popping sounds.
2. Physical examination: specific treatment is provided for the TMJ disorder, under which the expert will pay attention to the motion of movements and press the surrounding muscles and ligaments to know the actual cause and severity of the treatment.
3. Imaging test: your dentist will ask you for an imaging test to know your actual condition with your TMJ. This includes an X-ray, CT scan, MRI, and TMJ arthroscopy for a more detailed and close look. It is also helpful with abnormalities, arthritis, and structural issues.

Other than these main tests:

• Your dentist may ask you about your symptoms, medical history, and any other issue that is making your TMJ worse to know whether there is any trauma or stress.
• Maybe the temporomandibular joint specialist will look for your bite evaluation, which includes checking for teeth grinding or clenching.
• In very few cases, the EMG is recommended by the doctor to analyze the muscle activity.

Management and treatment for temporomandibular joint disorder

The TMJ disorder treatment depends on the individual condition, the causes, and the severity of the pain, and the dentist will consider the treatment from the very beginning, whether it is medication or non-surgical treatment. If still there is no improvement then surgery is taken into consideration.

Medications

There are several types of OTC available that help manage pain. Here is a list of medications provided by the experts:

• Pain relievers(to provide you relief from causing problems for a long time)
• Non-steroidal inflammatory drugs
• Muscle relaxers (usually for those who have problems grinding and clenching)
• Antidepressants

Non-surgical treatments

It includes several treatments, read in detail below:

• Mouth guards: Most dentists recommend mouth guards and oral splints to the patient, as they help keep the jaw in the most favourable position and reduce clenching or grinding. It is a customized solution made only after the doctor’s prescription, as everyone’s jaw size and shape are different.
• Physical therapy: the specific treatment includes a few sets of exercises that help reduce the pain and those that help with the movement of the jaw and strengthen the surrounding muscles.
• Trigger point injections: the solution is given to relieve you from the severe pain in instant mode, which includes needing or injecting a substance into muscle knots in the jaw.
• Ultrasound therapy: this is one of the best treatments, as here the list joint specialist will use deep heat to provide quick relief, as this helps in increasing blood circulation and results in muscle relaxation.
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation: the method uses low-level electrical currents, which reduce pain while promoting muscle relaxation.
• Improving bad habits: the dentist will ask you to improve your bad habits, including bad posture, chewing things, minimizing the use of teeth for tearing or anything else, and also avoiding unnecessary chewing of ice.

Surgical treatments

If any of the above treatments don’t work later, the dentist has to move toward choosing it as the only last option.

• Arthrocentesis: the treatment is performed to analyze whether the jaw joint is sore or not, and in addition, if it is found to be sore, the doctor may use a needle to remove fluid from the jaw joints.
• TMJ arthroscopy: in which the doctor will make a small incision near the front of your ear through which a thin tube with a pre-installed camera is inserted to know the problem, and also tools are used to get over problems like reshaping bones, removing scar tissue, and repositioning disks.
• Open joint surgery: when the smaller incision is not enough for the treatment, the dentist will consider open joint surgery to give you relief from your problems.

You need to choose only temporomandibular specialists for the treatment, as it is a severe process that requires high expertise and experience to perform for the patient’s ultimate satisfaction.

Here is your solution if you’re looking for the best temporomandibular specialist: Noida Dental Solution. We are a team of highly experienced professionals dedicated to providing the best treatment for TMJ disorder after a thorough understanding of causes and offering treatments based on a tailored approach to get the most quality results along with us we are always available to provide your quality advice and treatment for the same. Choose us right now for the best TMJ disorder treatment, along with dental fillings, root canal treatments, wisdom teeth removal, and a lot more.