When you suffer from TMJ disorder, this means serious strain on your jaw joints have caused a disorder linked to discomfort and issues with opening and closing your mouth. Don’t live with this discomfort, talk to our team about a possible treatment. In today’s blog, your Richfield, MN, dentist explains how we can stop TMJ disorder with a custom oral appliance.
The Causes and Risks of TMJ Disorder
The temporomandibular joints connect your jaw and skull, and are responsible for the actions necessary to eat and speak. But when these joints undergo excessive strain, this can cause TMJ disorder to occur, which then increases the risk of discomfort and even issues with opening and closing your mouth fully. The disorder could be brought on by issues like tooth loss, misalignment, injury, complications with the growth of the jaw or eruption of the teeth, wisdom tooth eruption, or untreated bruxism (teeth grinding). People with the disorder may report popping or clicking in the jaw, headaches and migraines, jaw and facial pain, or even aches in the neck and shoulders. Earaches could occur too. When you have persistent discomfort in and around your smile, please let us know right away!
Diagnosing Your Concerns
Our team will take detailed digital images of your smile from multiple angles, and then use them to assess the imbalance in your bite and the severity of your TMD. From there, we can create a treatment plan to alleviate your stress and help prevent discomfort from occurring in your smile. Every smile is different, so we want to offer care that is customized for your bite, and ensures better balance and health afterward.
Treatment for Your Bite
For some, we could discuss orthodontics to correct misalignment, dental prosthetics to fill the gaps in your smile or the use of ceramic crowns or bonding to improve overall bite balance and repair any damage brought on by teeth grinding. However, we often help with a comfortable and custom oral appliance, a device that looks and fits like a mouthguard, but has been custom-fitted for your smile. When worn, this helps reposition the jaw to ease stress on the joints and bring relief. If you grind your teeth, this appliance helps by placing a barrier between the upper and lower sets of teeth, preventing any damage from occurring. The device is easy to use and store, and can travel with you too!
If you have any questions about how our team will diagnose and treat issues like TMJ disorder or bruxism, then contact our team today.
Learn More About Addressing TMJ Dysfunction
If you want to improve the balance of your bite and ease strain on your jaw, then give us a call at Cedar West Dental in Richfield, MN today at (612)861-7188 to schedule an appointment.
