Treatment Overview
If your dentist suspects that stress or pressure on the jaw joint may be contributing to your TMD symptoms, you may benefit from relaxation techniques. From meditation & breathing exercises to medication targeting muscle relaxation or even anxiety, simply easing tension in the muscles around the jaw may help. Patients who grind their teeth while they sleep might find a night guard useful in reducing pressure, which can help ease the pain.
Additionally, some lifestyle changes may ease symptoms & give your joint & surrounding muscles time to recover from any pressure or injury that may have caused the TMD symptoms. Patients sometimes try eating soft foods rather than crunchy or chewy foods. Others simply avoid big jaw movements, like yawns or large mouthfuls of food. Quitting chewing gum could give your jaw muscles a break from constant irritation.
In some cases, even fixing a misaligned bite with orthodontic treatment or trying botox injections in the muscles around the joint can relieve symptoms, but these are not typically suggested unless other methods have not made a difference in a patient’s symptoms.
In especially severe cases of TMD, often including consistent, intense pain or limited jaw mobility that impedes eating or drinking, your dentist may recommend surgery. This is a last-resort treatment option after preferable conservative treatment has failed to relieve the pain in or around the joint.
If you have frequent & severe head or neck pain, you owe it to yourself to investigate our doctor’s life-changing approach to correcting these TMJ problems. Call us to schedule a consultation to talk about what we can do for you.