If you’ve ever woken up with sore teeth or a sore jaw in the morning, an unexplained headache, or a strange ‘clicking’ noise in your jaw, you may have a problem with your TMJ.
So what is a TMJ? It’s not a condition; it’s a part of your body! You have two temporomandibular joints or TMJs; one on each side of your jaw. The problems you are experiencing are called TMD (or temporomandibular disorders), a collection of more than 30 different conditions that cause pain and dysfunction in your jaw joint and the muscles that control jaw movement.
TMDs are commonly caused when you clench or grind your teeth, usually due to stress. This leads to displacement of your jaw joint, causing a range of motion that’s not normal. The end result is pain from jaw joint, an inability to close your mouth properly, and even lockjaw.
Let’s take a look at the causes of TMD, and what we can do about it to help treat and alleviate your pain.
Even though you might not know you’re doing it, you might be one of the 40-90% of people who clench or grind their teeth at some point in their lives.
And even though this problem might resolve itself naturally, this process can take up to 10 years! That’s a lot of pain and discomfort to deal with in the meantime.
Even if you’re not aware of your grinding or clenching habit, chances are you will be troubled by the effects.
Problems with your jaw joint can manifest in several painful ways. You may experience headaches, or wake up with sore teeth or a sore jaw in the morning. You might notice your jaw clicking, or even experience ‘lockjaw’ where you can’t open your mouth more than about 30 or 40mm. Worn or chipped teeth can also be a key sign that your jaw joint is misaligned.
Teeth clenching and grinding are mainly caused by stress and trauma in your life. At Wickham Terrace Dental we often see these issues manifest in people with stressful jobs, such as police or emergency services, and military veterans. But of course, everyone will experience stress at different points in their life.
TMD can be caused by:
For some people, stress can be episodic, coming and going in waves over months or even years. For others, stress is chronic. And while there’s nothing we can do to remove stress from your life, we can help to treat the dental issues it causes.
Even though around 90% of TMD cases will resolve themselves, at Wickham Terrace Dental we firmly believe in seeking treatment before then. That’s because it might take up to a decade for your TMJ problem to resolve itself – and your quality of life will certainly be affected over those ten years or more!
Then there are the problems that grinding your teeth can cause. Cracked or chipped teeth, worn down teeth, and cracked fillings are very common – and any fillings, crowns, or dental implants you have won’t last as long either.
Like most dental issues, seeking professional treatment earlier rather than later will usually lead to a much better outcome for you.
While you may not necessarily be able to remove all stress from your life, you can seek treatment for your TMD.
While we can take a scan of your mouth and monitor the outcomes of your teeth grinding, this will clearly take some time. In most cases, we can alleviate the effects of tooth grinding with an occlusal splint, exercises to improve the range and flexibility of your jaw, or injections to relieve muscle tension. This can provide acute relief of pain.
For more severe cases, we can refer you to specialist medical practitioners, to flush the temporomandibular joint or to have corticosteroid injections into the jaw joint itself. This can help to dampen your immune response, but because it will weaken your bones over time, it is only recommended for severe TMD cases.
If you’re suffering jaw pain from excessive teeth grinding or clenching, we can help. To discover your TMD treatment options, get in touch with the Wickham Terrace Dental team here or call us on 07 3831 3031.