Temporomandibular Disorder: Causes and Treatment

Temporomandibular joint is that part that connects the upper and lower jaw. You can feel this joint if you place two fingers at below both your ears and open your mouth wide. The rounded parts that you will feel are the joints. It is made up of the jaw bones, muscles, nerves and blood vessels. TMJ disorder is a common problem. Symptoms or outcomes of this disorder are- pain while opening the mouth, clicking and popping sounds while chewing, pain in the ear and neck, facial muscle pain, etc. This disorder causes a great amount of discomfort to the sufferer.

Common habits can lead to this disorder. You won't even realize those habits as the cause unless the dentist tells you. And curbing such habits can be troublesome sometimes. One of the major causes of this disorder is the clenching of the jaw or grinding of the teeth (bruxism). Clenching your jaw and grinding your teeth are involuntary actions. You may do it when you're sleeping, or when you're feeling cold. Clenching builds up tension in the joint and the stress finally becomes permanent. This leads to intense pain while moving your jaw bones. Grinding your teeth leads to misalignment of the teeth and muscle spasm. The pains associated with such causes can be dealt with at home, after visiting your dentist at least once. The dentist will prescribe you anti-inflammatory pain medications for the times when the pain is really bad. On normal days, apply a hot compress to your jaw and on your neck to ease the pain. Apply the compress five to six times a day for twenty minutes. Doing this for two or three months will reduce the frequency and intensity of the pain for good. Arthritis, both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis causes this disorder. Just like arthritis causes pain in the joints of the body, people feel pain in the jaw too. Such causes of the syndrome are found mainly in elderly people. This degenerative disorder leads to the destruction of the cartilage of the joints.

This disorder is very painful when it hits people. When it gets more serious, then you may have trouble swallowing food, you may have headaches and feel dizzy, you may hear a ringing noise or experience loss of hearing, you may feel nauseous, you may also experience swelling in your face. A lot of times, people have trouble biting. The method for comfort suggested earlier will suffice only if the disorder is minor. If it is serious, then you may need to seek medical treatment that goes beyond medication for pain. For those who grind their teeth or clench, the dentist will fit a splint. The splint prevents the pressure from grinding and clenching from reaching the joint. This splint is usually worn at night, or during the sleeping hours. To prevent clenching and grinding, the dentist may also advise you to engage in stress reduction activities. Another treatment for this disorder, though invasive in nature, is performed under anesthesia. It involves inserting two needles into the joint and washing it out. This treatment gives instant relief and has no side effects. The only drawback would that it is not a permanent treatment. To make it permanent, one must incorporate preventive measures into their habits. Other procedures, possibly more expensive, are surgical in nature. They involve restructuring the jaw, replacing joints with artificial implants, etc.

Whatever course of treatment you take, do go to your dentists for follow ups.