See What We Can Do for an Aching Jaw
The TMJ and tooth grinding situation, you have to look at the teeth during the exam, and you can tell if the teeth are starting to wear, you know, that may be time for them to at least get a night guard. So, when they grind, they grind against plastic and not against their other teeth. So, they’ll eventually wear the plastic but not wear out their own teeth, which is very important.
TMJ pain is it’s a difficult situation because sometimes it has to do with their personal life if they’re experiencing a lot of stress personally. So, you know, you have to bring that up and make sure that they’re doing things to control their stress, either at their job or in their home to make sure that that’s not part of the whole situation.
There used to be a lot of surgery for TMJ, but we’re finding that the situation, kind of, heals itself over time, either with just a mouth appliance, because it’s not like a knee joint where you’re putting pressure on it still. It’s just a matter of if you can reduce your stress, and then the body is pretty good at remodeling that joint to where they may still have popping but their pain can go away.
