Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ)

Neuromuscular dentistry focuses on the healthy relationship among the teeth, jaw joints, and head and neck muscles. Many people live with the pain of TMJ on a daily basis because of a lack of diagnosis.

Neuromuscular dentistry treats TMJ at its root cause, not at its symptoms.  Frequently, people will seek out treatment for the symptoms caused by TMJ, not the true problem.   The problem is that TMJ can cause pain in a number of places that do not seem related to the alignment of teeth, making it tricky to diagnose.

What Happens When a Patient Finds Out They May Have TMJ Disorder?

Jaw pain is a very common symptom of TMJ because it is a dysfunction of the jaw joint.

A “bad bite” in which your upper and lower teeth do not come together in proper alignment also disrupts the placement of the jaw and the surrounding muscles. This imbalance in the bite-jaw-muscle relationship is what causes the pain in the jaw.

We are trained in neuromuscular dentistry and we can help alleviate jaw pain related to TMJ by realigning the bite. Once the jaw is back into its most relaxed position the surrounding muscles can also resume their natural function.

A clicking jaw, popping jaw, or snapping in the jaw joint is the most common symptom of TMJ. There may or may not be pain in the jaw when the clicking or popping sound is heard. The clicking sound may even be so loud that others can hear it when you chew or speak.  Neuromuscular Dentistry works to realign the bite, which also realigns jaw eliminate theses symptoms.