TMJ Treatments In Salem, OR
Your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is the joint directly in front of your ears that connects your jaw to your skull. This very important joint is in charge of helping with talking, chewing, yawning, and other general jaw movements, both up and down and side to side. Sometimes your TMJ can develop problems in the joint itself or the muscles that are around the joint. These problems, which are somewhat common and can be extremely painful, are known as temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD).
What Causes TMDs?
There are numerous causes of TMDs that include:
Grinding your teeth. Perhaps the main cause of problems with your TMJ, grinding your teeth puts a lot of pressure on the joint, which can eventually lead to future problems.
Injuries like whiplash or other injuries to the head or neck area. These injuries in the area of your jaw can have a great effect on your jaw joint and jaw muscles.
Arthritis in the joint. This can cause a great deal of pain and discomfort in your TMJ.
Stress. Stress is a main cause for having problems with the muscles that surround your jaw joint. If you are stressed and tend to clench your jaw muscle because of it, you are at …show more content…
If we determine these headaches to be a product of a TMD, there are a number of ways that we can treat them and your TMJ pain, too. Some of our treatments involve a mouthguard that aligns your jaw and keeps you from grinding your teeth. This is worn at night. We also offer a mouthguard worn during the day that functions like the one worn at night or a splint to ease teeth grinding. They work by first, keeping you from grinding your teeth and second, opening your airway to give you better sleep. We also provide full-mouth rehab to repair misalignments that cause jaw pain. All of these options are fantastic at alleviating the pains brought about by TMDs or teeth