TMJ is a very rare disorder that most health care professionals are unaware of. TMJ stands for temporomandibular joints which are located on either sides of a person's face. This disorder is quite serious and needs immediate treatment. It not treated in a timely manner it can severely affect the patient's back, neck, ears, and head too. TMJ also has a negative effect on the patient's eating, breathing, and sleeping thus causing quite distress in his/her life. The main cause of TMJ disorder is a shift in the position of patient's teeth or by orthodontic work performed on the patient. A patient experiencing this disorder will experience symptoms like difficulty and pain when opening or closing his/her jaw, jaw clicking, and even tightness in the jaw. When the patient's jaw joints become unaligned due to various reasons he or she can start experiencing this problem.
If you feel that you are experiencing any of the above mentioned symptoms, you should immediately consult a TMJ dentist. Before you go looking for a TMJ dentist, you should first consult with your regular dentist and describe these symptoms to him or her. Any regular dentist will also be able to diagnose this disorder by conducting a thorough exam. Your regular dentist will be more familiar with your jaw and teeth history than any new TMJ dentist. Therefore it is important that you first consult with your regular dentist and discuss your problems with him or her first and then take his/her advice on which TMJ dentist to go to.
People working in the medical profession are more able to give you good referrals. Therefore ask your dentist to refer to you an expert Dentist or any maxillofacial surgeon that is board certified too. The problem is that you can never find any Dentist who is a recognized specialist in this particular area. This is why you will have to search for maxillofacial surgeons who will basically be your Dentist too. A maxillofacial surgeon is basically experienced in the particular areas of jaw and mouth and hence the work of the Dentist falls in his medical expertise. If you are suffering from TMJ disorder the most probable treatment that your Dentist will recommend is surgery and for that you should go to an experienced maxillofacial surgeon who will be able to bring your jaw back in balance through surgery.
The best place to search for an experienced and recognized TMJ dentist is the online website of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain. On this site you can find many references to any expert Dentist that is located close to your area. Here you simply have to select the state in which you are living in and from there you can get a complete list of Dentists. You can get full details on any Dentist that you find appropriate like his/her contact number, official address, email ID, and personal website if he/she has any. Always go for a Dentist that is located close to you because making multiple trips to the Dentist office will be difficult for you if the clinic is located too far away. Other details that you should look into are the Dentist credentials, educational background, working experience, and their policies regarding dental insurance.
There are other ways as well through which you can search for a good TMJ dentist like asking any dental school in your vicinity for referrals or by asking the dental society of your state to give you good recommendations. These sources will help you locate a good and experienced TMJ dentist that you can go to confidently.
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