/24-7PressRelease/ - March 16, 2008 - Neuromuscular dentistry works with the jaw joints and their related soft tissue to create optimal alignment of your bite. Many people in the United States suffer from the effects of TMD (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder) and are never aware of it. Often the disease, which is a misaligned jaw joint, goes unnoticed and untreated, resulting in needless suffering for many years.
The jaw joint
The jaw joint is a ball-and-socket joint in front of each ear. It has a cartilage pad to cushion the movement of the lower jaw against the skull. TMD is a defect in the positioning of these bones and cartilage pad. It can be caused by a blow to the side of the head, by chronic tooth grinding, by misaligned teeth, by some genetic factors, and by other factors which are not fully understood yet.
Several large nerves run through the jaw area, with many branches extending through the head, neck, shoulders, arms and hands. That is why TMD symptoms are so diverse. A misaligned jaw joint creates chronic jaw muscle stress. This creates inflammation. When inflammation compresses a nerve in one particular place, the pain can be felt throughout that nerve.
TMD develops over years and affects millions of people. The cause is a bad bite, known as malocclusion (your occlusion is your bite), which can be repaired by a qualified neuromuscular dentist.
Training for Neuromuscular Dentistry
The leading facility for training in neuromuscular dentistry is the
Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies. Dentists who have graduated from this facility are highly skilled in recognizing the signs and symptoms of TMD and in diagnosing and treating it. They are also highly skilled in cosmetic dentistry, so that while correcting a misaligned bite, they can also enhance your smile.
How Neuromuscular Dentistry Diagnoses TMD
With the latest technology, your
neuromuscular dentist is able to determine the best position for your jaw, so as to relieve the painful symptoms.
• Computerized equipment records your jaw's resting position, its path of movement to closure and all of its other movements.
• Electromyography measures the function of your jaw muscles for both the stressed and relaxed positions. It can also determine any structural defects in the jaw joint.
• Sonography is used to record the jaw joint sounds to determine if there are any abnormalities present.
• X-rays are often taken to aid in evaluation of joint position and condition.
When your jaw is not aligned properly, neuromuscular dentistry can pinpoint how to correct its alignment, and by addressing the problem itself, can relieve your painful symptoms: jaw pain, headaches, neck and facial pain, shoulder pain, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), popping and clicking jaw joints, and others.
Possible TM Treatments
• Relief of muscle pain and spasm through ULF-TENS (Ultra Low Frequency Transcutaneous Electrical Neural Stimulation) technology. A TENS unit has electrodes which your neuromuscular dentist will place on the jaw, neck and shoulder areas. They transmit mild electrical stimulation which repeatedly contracts the jaw muscles. This relaxes them, perhaps for the first time in years.
• Use of an orthotic (a temporary oral stabilizing device) to perform adjustments to your mouth until stabilization of your bite has been accomplished.
• Dental work for better alignment, such as crowns, tooth recontouring, and perhaps orthodontic work.
Your neuromuscular dentist will discuss long term management of your bite and decide how to keep it in its best position.
Neuromuscular dentistry is the practice of realigning the jaw joint, which corrects the way in which your upper and lower teeth meet - your bite. This relieves stress on the jaw muscles, and eliminates the painful TMD symptoms. Not every dentist is trained as a neuromuscular dentist. Very few are.
Visit a
highly qualified, LVI-trained neuromuscular dentist, and your TMD pain will soon be a thing of the past.
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