Solving TMJ Pain in Patients
If you’ve noticed a clicking or popping noise in your jaw or talked about this annoying or even painful symptom with friends and family At Northern Texas Facial & Oral Surgery, we’d like to help you find a solution that facilitates normal, healthy, and comfortable jaw motion again, and our surgeons can work with you to recommend a variety of surgical or nonsurgical therapies.
What is TMJ?
The temporomandibular joints—or TMJ—reside at the base of the jaw in front of your ears. They’re responsible for smooth, pain-free jaw motion, and they are the most frequently used joints in your entire body as they move while you smile, talk, eat, and even sleep. However, a jaw injury, teeth grinding, a misaligned bite, and other factors can cause these joints to malfunction, resulting in a variety of painful conditions.
Common symptoms of TMJ
You may notice your jaw clicks or pops when you open your mouth. Some sufferers report chronic headaches, including migraines. Other signs of TMJ dysfunction include low back pain, tingling in the hands and fingers, and unexplained facial discomfort.
Our noninvasive approach to your comfort
At Northern Texas Facial & Oral Surgery, we take a conservative approach to restoring TMJ health, advocating surgery only after nonsurgical treatments have been tried. If you do need surgery to remedy an issue with the TMJ joints, you’re in good hands with our board-certified dental team. Our surgeons have the training, experience, and knowledge to make your surgery a success.
TMJ treatments
The right way to handle your TMJ will be a personal decision. Medications like anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants can help relax the jaw and provide pain relief. An oral splint, a device that fits over your teeth, can correct jaw alignment, while there are even physical therapy exercises you can do at home to stretch and strengthen jaw muscles.
There are also multiple types of surgery to consider. From injections to arthroscopy, each addresses specific problems and comes with varying levels of invasiveness and limitations, so please make an appointment with our board-certified surgeons to discuss your TMJ symptoms and which surgical treatment will be the most effective. We’ll start with an exam that informs our diagnosis about where the joint is not moving smoothly, and we can try out some simple treatments before moving on to discuss surgery.
Northern Texas Facial & Oral Surgery – Personal Service, Professional Excellence.
Call our Grapevine, Irving, or Keller office today to schedule an appointment with one of our board certified oral surgeons.
Understanding TMJ and Facial Pain