If you’ve been suffering from symptoms like consistent headaches or jaw pain, it may be time to consider more than how occlusion—the way your teeth meet one another—may be affecting your smile. Although occlusion may play a part in your discomfort, the Office of William C. Poe V, DDS, uses neuromuscular dentistry theories to examine your head, neck, jaws, and most importantly the inner and outer workings of your mouth to test you for TMJ disorder in Los Alamitos. We think it’s important to treat our patients in TMJ pain from the outside in (muscles first, teeth later), rather than from the inside out.
What is TMJ Disorder?
Understand the functions of TMJ’s can help patients grasp why it’s so important to seek medical attention for their discomfort. Temporomandibular joints are triangle-shaped joints made of muscle and cartilage. Each TMJ is right in front of either ear on the sides of your head. These joints play a key role in how your mouth opens and closes—an important function for both eating and speaking. Without a properly functioning TMJ, simple tasks like enjoying a painless meal or engaging in an interesting conversation become uncomfortable. TMJ Disorder can really decline the quality of a suffering patient’s life.
What happens if you don’t treat TMJ Disorder?
It’s too easy for TMJ disorder to be aggravated by normal, day-to-day tasks. For this reason, your dentist in Los Alamitos encourages patients that experience slightly uncomfortable symptoms to seek treatment before the disorder continues to develop. Failure to do so may have serious lifelong consequences.
- Patients tend to self-medicate which can easily turn into a full-blown addiction.
- Pain and the habit of grinding teeth from TMJ disorder cause many patients to suffer from sleep disturbances and insomnia.
- The decline in their quality of life and absence of sleep may also contribute to depression.
- Patients may develop eating disorders or suffer from malnutrition because they can’t eat properly.
What are the signs of TMJ Disorder?
Your TMJ can become damaged for several reasons, but the most common factors seem to be extreme stress, an improper bite, or sudden trauma to areas around your head and mouth. Common indicators of TMJ disorder include:
- Constant, serious headaches
- Difficulty opening and closing your mouth
- Persistent body pain in the head, face, or neck
- Stiffness in your jaw
- Ringing or pressure in your ears
- Sticking or clicking when opening and closing your mouth
How can Dr. Poe help me?
Our office addresses the muscles in and around your mouth first before anything. By addressing how the inner workings of your mouth affect how your teeth and jaws interact, we can provide you the perfect TMJ treatment: an orthotic device to relax the muscles within your jaw. Look at our testimonial video for yourself! If you don’t provide relief for your muscles, they can become overwhelmingly tense for extended periods of time. Once you have worn your custom orthotic device for a certain amount of time, the results will be evident—improved abilities to speak, eat, and an improved outlook on life!
Contact our office today to schedule a consultation with Dr. Poe about your possible TMJ disorder and how we can help treat it.