The Case for a TMJ Mouth Guard

Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ) is a very painful and often delimiting health issue with most TMJ patients willing to go to any extreme in order to treat this disorder. The term TMJDs also refers to temporomandibular joint and muscle disorders but the more common term is TMJ usually.

Treating TMJ symptoms starts with understanding the problem and then looking at the various options out there.

TMJ treatments essentially come with a couple of options, which a TMJ dentist can help you with. Those treatments and the counsel involved include:

1. A TMJ mouth guard that is designed to cure the problem; a good night guard also works well with in solving teeth gritting or teeth grinding.


2. Jaw muscle exercises designed to strengthen the areas causing characteristic jaw popping, clicking and/or jaw pain, ear pain, headaches, etc.


3. Counsel as to what to avoid, e.g., needlessly clenching the teeth, chewing gum, chewing on a pencil, biting lips or fingernails, etc. Doing these things or a combination thereof can cause or make the problem worse.

As alluded, it goes without saying that you need proper diagnose from a qualified dentist. Your TMJ issue may be hereditary or stress induced. In which case, your dentist can help guide you to the best option(s) available. In truth, your TMJ specialist dentist may recommend a combination of all the aforementioned options.

Regarding TMJ splints, it is one of the most viable options available for you. An option that works. A TMJ dentist can recommend a TMJ mouth guard that is designed to help you gain that coveted pain relief. Most dentists don't have their own night guards to provide you with but most know which ones on the market work and which ones that don't -- that is valuable information. (By the way, a TMJ splint is sometimes called a TMJ appliance or TMJ mouth guard or TMJ night guard -- those terms are interchangeable essentially so don't let the cross usage of those terms confuse you.)

Continuing, a combination of the above recommendations is the way to go. The problem is getting the right mouth guard for you specifically. That's the trick. There are a LOT of night guards out there. What you need to carefully review the one that's right for you.

So one possibility that you might want to think about is entering into the habit (for a time) of utilizing a TMJ night guard.

These are mouth guards carefully designed to reduce grinding or clenching by eliminating back teeth interferences and muscle stimulations during sleeping time, which mouth guards also precipitate your distinctive and particular bite and thus let your jaw muscles, ligaments and tendons relax in a natural position that will obviate discomfort and pain.

That's what you want. Patients of TMJ typically experience pain comparable to migraines or headache-like symptoms or complications, and rightly consider these pains TMJ related.

There is some proof for this in that a significant percentage of people who use bed time biofeedback to scale back bed time "clenching" or pain say they experience an elimination of migraines and headaches as well as a reduction in direct TMJ pain. Also, it should be noted that another problem is that depression is common with TMJ as well, unfortunately. Sufferers usually really feel helpless as the character and cause of their pain is not properly understood by most.

Although the concept of TMJ dysfunction could appear sophisticated, TMJ cures are actually quite simple.

The key is the correct product -- and the correct non-biased info or review.