Are you experiencing jaw pain, tenderness, facial pain, and difficulty opening and closing your mouth? The symptoms could indicate TMJ (temporomandibular joint) disorder. Carthay TMJ treatment can help eliminate symptoms and prevent complications, including chronic pain and inflammation. TMJ disorder treatment may be conservative, such as using devices, lifestyle adjustments, and joint stretch techniques. In severe cases, you may need TMJ surgery, emphasizing the need for prompt care. In some instances, TMJ can be prevented or escalation stopped. This mainly involves mitigating the risk factors. Below are some common TMJ disorder risk factors.
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Chronic bruxism
Bruxism is characterized by involuntary clenching or grinding of your teeth, which mainly happens in your sleep. It could also happen when awake, which mainly results in clenching the teeth or tensing the muscles around the jaw. Bruxism is mainly caused by mental concerns. Stress, anger issues, and frustrations often trigger involuntary and destructive habits.
Managing bruxism often involves addressing the stressors, but you could also benefit from devices like a mouthguard. Bruxism causes excessive pressure on your teeth, gums, jaw, and joints, leading to TMJ disorder. Proper management can alleviate the pressure, ease symptoms, including facial pain, and prevent TMJ disorder development and other concerns like enamel erosion, teeth cracking, and chipping.
Injury
Facial trauma can injure the jaw, connective tissues, muscles, and surrounding ligaments. The injury impacts how the joints move. At its basics, TMJ is compromised joint movement, which the injury causes due to the impacted jaws, muscles, and ligaments. Injury prevention, especially following your occupation, can help mitigate TMJ disorder. For instance, wearing protective gear during certain sporting activities is helpful. Prompt injury care can also help speed recovery and minimize the chances of developing TMJ disorder.
Connective tissue diseases
Connective tissue diseases can affect the joints, especially considering how they compromise muscle fibers. When muscles, including the medial, masseter, lateral pterygoid, and temporalis, are affected, your TMJ joint movements take a blow. You will struggle to open and close your mouth, chew, and speak. The increasingly weaker muscles compromise joint movements, leading to TMJ disorder. Treating and managing connective tissue diseases can help keep the muscles and joints in better condition, address TMJ disorder symptoms, and prevent worsening the condition.
Arthritis
Rheumatoid and osteoarthritis put you at an increased risk of TMJ disorder. Osteoarthritis causes hard and soft tissue damage around the jaw joints. This results in shape and function changes in your jaw, which can cause TMJ disorder. Rheumatoid arthritis causes pain and swelling and can result in pain and tenderness in the joints. As the condition progresses, the joints become painful and could even make noise during movements. Arthritis management can help keep the joint from extensive damage and keep TMJ disorder in check.
TMJ disorder can affect how you talk, eat, and even manage your oral hygiene, putting you at risk of other dental and overall health issues. This emphasizes the need to mitigate the risks and prompt medical attention when symptoms hit. Visit Smile Perfector Dental Group today for more on TMJ disorder and available treatments.