Temporomandibular Joint Pain (TMJ)

What is Your Temporomandibular Joint?

Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ or jaw joint) is the most used joint in the body. Your TMJs are involved with eating, talking and breathing. They are also heavily involved . When things go wrong with your TMJ it is known as Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD).

Temporomandibular joint Dysfunction Symptoms

You may or may not experience jaw pain or tenderness with TMJ dysfunction. The most common symptoms include: jaw clicking jaw popping grinding limited jaw opening, or jaw deviation while opening (which you can observe in a mirror) an inability to fully clench your jaw. TMD sufferers are often teeth grinders or clenchers. Temporomandibular dysfunction can cause jaw pain, headaches, ear pain, dizziness and pain in the top of the neck. Some TMJ patients report pain or inability to eat, talk or sing.

What Causes Temporomandibular Disorder?

TMJ dysfunction can have a range of contributing factors. The common causes of TMD include:

• Muscle dysfunction, tight muscles can be painful or can cause stress on other structures to create pain
• There is a disc of cartilage in the joint which can move out of place and cause pain
• If you grind your teeth at night this can cause increased pressure in the joint which creates pain
• Some people naturally have an unusual bit pattern. This can cause asymmetrical loading on the jaw joints which causes pain

Contributing factors include:

• Poor alignment of the jaw bone
• Removal of wisdom teeth
• Having your mouth open for a long time eg dental procedure,
• Poor posture of the neck
• Pain in the muscles or other connective tissues
• Neuropsychological factors such as psychological stress, depression etc
• Whiplash injury
• Trauma (ie., blow to the chin)
• infection in the joint

How is TMJ Dysfunction Diagnosed?

TMJ dysfunction can be diagnosed at Pure Physio Albany. John has had advanced training in jaw dysfunction. TMD is a clinical movement dysfunction diagnosis. They will liasise, if necessary, with other dental practitioners or surgeons.

Temporomandibular Joint Assessment

During your TMJ examination, your Physiotherapist will assess how much and how well your jaw moves, muscle tension and length as well as TMJ co-ordination and movement pattern. Your TMJ Physiotherapist will then be able to identify your problem and describe the diagnosis to you.

What is the Best Treatment for TMJ?

The best treatment for TMJ does vary based upon the diagnosis or the dysfunction of the movement. As a general rule TMJ opening disorders (how the jaw moves when opening or closing) are more likely to be successfully treated with jaw movement improvement techniques such as massage, dry needling/acupuncture, muscle stretch/relaxation/coordination exercises or joint capsule stretching techniques that are provided by your physiotherapist.

For closing disorders a more multi professional team might be required with a dentist looking at how your teeth fit together or at methods for controlling teeth grinding.

If stress or anxiety are contributing to teeth grinding it might be necessary to talk to a health professional about those things too.

What to expect with TMJ Treatment

Prognosis is favourable in the vast majority of patients treated with physiotherapy. A medical study by Field in 2012, found that with TMJ physiotherapy treatment, 75% of the TMD group resolved their condition within 3 months. This is certainly consistent with our clinical results at Pure Physio Albany.

The vast majority of people with these problems improve within a few weeks of commencing TMJ treatment. This compares to a much slower resolution without physio treatment.

Its easy to get help from Pure Physio Albany?

Give us a call on 09 4481277 to sort an appointment or click here to book online we are located at Unit 4 Number 18, Airborne Road, Rosedale, Auckland 0632