Outline:
·
When treating TMJ pain seems
hopeless
·
Surgery may not be your best
solution
·
TMJ pain may not be a jaw problem
Patients with TMJ often see a large
drop in the quality of their life:
·
“I feel like a baby because I can’t
eat solid foods anymore”
·
“There are times where I just have
to stop talking because all I can think about is the pain”
·
“That popping sound creeps me out
and drives me nuts”
A lot of people will experience jaw
pain for a day or two if they bite into a hard/chewy piece of food, but imagine
if your life was plagued with jaw pain every single day. We underestimate the
importance of our jaw, but it’s the piece of anatomy that allows you to enjoy
some of the finest pleasures in life. Everything from kissing, to chewing, to a
casual conversation with friends becomes a burden when your jaw fails to
function.
Desperate
Times and Desperate Measures
Severe cases of TMD (Temporomandibular Disorders) can make people reach their breaking point quickly. Many of the patients that come to our office are usually looking at surgery as their next and final option because they don’t know what to do.
Even worse is when a patient spends
tens of thousands of dollars for surgery but the pain doesn’t go away.
Procedures that help to remove or replace a degenerated disc in the joint are
sometimes performed to eliminate this pain sensitive piece of anatomy. The
problem is that a degenerated disc can show up on imaging, but it isn’t
necessarily the cause of the pain.
Unfortunately this happens more
often than you might think, and it’s something that can make a patient with TMD
hopeless if even surgery couldn’t get the job done.
This isn’t to say that surgery is
not the answer, or that surgery can’t help, but we have to remember that TMD is
a problem that science has yet to reveal all of the answers, and dental surgery
is still working on figuring out what works and when it’s appropriate.
TMJ Pain May Not Be A Jaw Problem
There are many different causes for
TMJ pain. They can range from abnormal jaw movement, tight jaw muscles, and
degenerated discs. These can all be problem areas for a TMJ patient, but they
all have something in common.
In fact, their commonality goes back
to some of the same neurological mechanisms that contribute to neck pain and
headaches. That’s why people with TMJ don’t just have jaw pain; they often have
neck pain and headaches at the same time. It’s because almost all pain signals
from the head and neck go through a small piece of spinal cord called the
trigemino-cervical nucleus.
Trigemino-cervical…..what????
Sometimes
Pain is a Computer Problem
So if you don’t have a medical
background, some of that terminology might jump over your head.
Instead of thinking anatomy, let’s
talk about it like a computer.
Your brain and spinal cord are like
a computer chip. The part of your computer chip that feels head and neck pain
is the trigemino-cevical nucleus.
Just like all computer chips, the
quality of information that comes out is dependent on the quality of
information that comes in. If you put junk information in, you get junk
information out.
The computer chip of your body
relies heavily on information from the muscles and joints. These signals
are like computer programs. Whenever these joints move poorly from bad
positioning, then it’s like a bad program that gives faulty information about
what’s happening inside the body. This can occur from malpositioning of the
jaw, faulty jaw movement, neck positioning errors, and faulty neck movement.
It’s like a computer virus going
into your system and scrambling important signals into the brain.
This tells the body to produce a
junk signals including:
- Tight and tense jaw muscles
- Inappropriate inflammation
- Central pain sensitivity
Can
This Program Get Shut Off?
Fortunately your body’s program for
pain can be re-written by changing the way these joints move.
A specialist like a neuromuscular
dentist can use non-invasive methods to change the way your jaw moves and alter
your bite with an orthotic.
Chiropractors that can correct the
craniocervical region can create a dramatic impact on the pain programming in
the brain.
That’s why both of these doctors
frequently see similar patients, and will actually co-manage them between each
other. Neck pain patients may get better relief from a dentist changing their
bite, while some TMJ patients will get better relief from correcting their
neck.
While we can’t say for certain which
takes priority, but many patients can benefit from an interdisciplinary
approach to care. Take the time to get a Complimentary Consultation to find out
what method fits with you. You may even find that getting the entire jaw/neck
complex fixed may be the key to solving your TMD.
Call our office today for your free
consultation – Premier Chiropractic 248-287-8700
