Find Relief from TMJ Pain with Our Non-Invasive, Customized Treatments
The dentists at Family Comprehensive & Cosmetic Dentistry in Jacksonville, NC have dedicated extensive time to studying Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMJ/TMD) treatment, enabling us to offer effective, affordable care for patients of all ages. No matter the severity of your symptoms, we provide non-invasive treatments paired with behavior modifications—surgery is rarely needed for TMJ sufferers. If you or a loved one exhibits signs of TMJ, read on to learn how we can help alleviate your discomfort and restore your quality of life.
What is the Temporomandibular Joint?
The Temporomandibular Joint, known as the TMJ, one of which is located on either side of the face just below the ear, is the most complex joint in the human body. No other joint moves in three different directions: up and down, side-to-side, and forward and backward. It’s easy for the function of this joint to go awry because it controls so many movements we make thousands of times per day.
When the mandible and its joints are properly aligned, smooth muscle actions such as chewing, talking, yawning, and swallowing can occur easily. However, when the TMJs are not in their optimal positions, the result can be Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (known as TMD and TMJ), a painful condition that presents a wide array of symptoms.
Symptoms of this disorder can impact various parts of the body, making it difficult to detect, sometimes for years or even decades. For instance, a medical professional without specialized knowledge may not connect ear pain and ringing to a jaw joint problem. However, a dentist familiar with these issues will recognize ear symptoms as potential indicators of a jaw-related disorder.
Symptoms of TMJ
TMJ is often misdiagnosed or undiagnosed by medical doctors and dentists without neuromuscular dentistry training because the symptoms just don’t seem to make sense to someone with little experience in disorders of the Temporomandibular Joint.
Our TMJ dentists in Jacksonville understand how debilitating jaw pain can be, and we offer relief without surgery or narcotic medications. Typically, this condition will present with a combination of the following signs and symptoms:
- Jaw pain
- Ear pain
- Neck pain
- Ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
- Upper extremity and hand pain, tingling, and numbness
- Headache
- Teeth clenching/grinding (bruxism)
- Difficulty falling and staying asleep
- Jaw locking
- Jaw pain
- Ear pain
- Neck pain
- Upper extremity and hand pain, tingling, and numbness
- Ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
- Headache
- Jaw locking
- Teeth clenching/grinding (bruxism)
- Difficulty falling and staying asleep
If you catch yourself grinding your teeth or clenching your teeth in your sleep without even realizing it, you may suffer from bruxism. Bruxism is often subconscious; due to the fact that it occurs most often during sleep, people don’t always know they grind and/or clench their teeth. Our TMJ dentists can spot the signs that you’ve been grinding and clenching your teeth. The good news is that bruxism is treatable at Jacksonville’s premier TMJ treatment practice, Family Comprehensive & Cosmetic Dentistry.
TMJ Treatment is Available
By diagnosing and treating TMJ, our dentists will help you take the first step to wellness, and following treatment, we hope you will thrive like never before. You will sleep better, you will have less pain, you will have fewer headaches, and you will no longer have to bow out of social activities or family functions due to the painful symptoms of TMJ.
TMJ Treatment Options
Any one of our TMJ treatment options will benefit you. After gathering a detailed medical and dental history, we will ask about your daily habits and sleep positions. You can make simple behavior modifications like eliminating caffeine, changing your sleep, or investing in a better-quality pillow and mattress. Our TMJ dentists may recommend some dietary changes to eliminate caffeine and foods that are too crunchy or require excessive chewing. Making small changes like this often provides patients with immediate relief.
TENS (Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation) applied to the tense, painful areas of your head, neck, jaw, and upper back may also provide relief of your painful symptoms. TENS only takes a few minutes. If you find them beneficial, you can have TENS treatments several times a month.
We may recommend an oral appliance (also known as a mouthguard, occlusal guard, or night guard) that is custom-designed and fitted to your bite. An oral appliance will place your jaw in its optimal position for sleep so you do not grind and clench your teeth at night or put your jaw joints under undue strain.
Our innovative TMJ technology allows us to offer our patients a number of noninvasive TMJ treatment options. Advanced dental technology is a powerful tool for diagnosing and treating Jacksonville’s TMJ.
Cone Beam Computer Tomography (CBCT): Cone beam computed tomography gives us detailed images of your temporomandibular joints. The high-resolution 3D images enable our dentists to detect even the most minor changes in your bone structure so we can identify abnormal wear and tear before it becomes too serious.
Benefits of TMJ Treatment
If you are looking for jaw pain relief and better sleep, please call (910) 353-5171 to contact the Jacksonville, NC TMJ dentists at Family Comprehensive & Cosmetic Dentistry. You may also fill out our online contact form, and one of our team members will contact you to help you.
You need not suffer the numerous painful symptoms of TMJ any longer. Our effective TMJ treatment options include behavior modifications, CBCT, TENS, and reconstructive/restorative dental treatments to align your teeth and jaws optimally.
