Find Relief for Jaw and Facial Pain

Joint popping in the TMJ is often a result of one or two things. Either the muscles of your chewing system are tight and tense, and it causes a pull on the disc that pulls it partially or fully out of place. The other cause is normally from the misalignment of the lower jaw and the upper jaw, and when you bite together the condyle or joints of your lower jaw are forced too far backwards, leaving your disc displaced in front of the boney joint itself. Our aim is to discover the cause and then effectively treat the cause that leads to relief from popping and clicking!

When the “bite” itself or the alignment of your jaw from your bite disrupt the harmony of your face and neck muscles, you might stress them throughout the night leading to fatigue. When you wake in the morning, the headache is a result of the muscles being overworked throughout the night.

When your “bite” is poorly balanced, the feedback from your teeth when you squeeze together at night can cause a response that over excites your jaw muscles. The result is fatigued muscles that are overstimulated and the symptoms often include headaches around the temples, jaw aches around the lower jaw, difficulty opening wide in the mornings, popping and clicking, and neck tension. Wanting relief, correct the bite!

Yes! We see patients often that have already seen an ENT for ear pain, and it turns out to be a result of the bite itself. When the joint is inflamed, which is common when the bite is misaligned, the capsule of the joint gets inflamed. The ear canal and the joint are intimately related, and ligaments that run from the TMJ capsule to the ear will relate the issues, resulting in ringing of the ears, ear fullness, and ear pain.

A poorly aligned bite is the most often cause of headaches. Why? Because the muscles of chewing involve the head and neck, and when those muscles are strained to coordinate a poor bite relationship, they’ll be overused and taxed, resulting in muscle pain, the primary cause of headaches.

Many people ask this because it doesn't always hurt when the joint pops or clicks, but keep in my a popping joint is not what a normal or healthy joint does. When left alone, the damage resulting from the consistent tension and damage to the disc itself leads to degradation of the joint, which will result in pain. It may be common, but clicking isn’t normal!

By starting with a proper diagnosis. There are several symptoms of TMJ disorders, but limited causes. When we address the system of your jaws, the bite itself, and the function of your mouth, we can better understand the underlying causes and then form a plan to correct the misalignment, the poor bite, or the poor function. The result is a healthy system that should be free from stress and further damage, not to mention the relief!

Our expertise in myofunctional therapy, neuromuscular dentistry, growth and development, and orthodontics helps us see the problem from multiple angles. By having the technology to property identify your root cause, we can form a plan to relieve them. Using the latest technology like EMG’s to monitor muscle activity, TekScan digital bite analysis, CBCT x-rays, and more, we can treat the causes we identified until you’re living a pain free life and smiling once again.