TMJ Headaches

Many of my readers comment about how they learned a great deal from the articles that I have written on TMJ headaches so I thought I would write again this month on that topic.

8 out of 10 Americans suffer from headaches and 85% of these are dental related. How can this be? The teeth, jaw joints, and chewing muscles of the face and neck are part of a very complex neuromuscular system. They all must work together or there will be a breakdown that occurs. There are some very big chewing muscles on the side of the head that if over worked, will hurt. People misunderstand the symptoms that they are having and rush to the medical doctor because they believe that they have something occurring on the inside of their heads, like a tumor. Patients will go through expensive MRI's only to find that there is nothing wrong. These are helpful to rule out tumors etc. but people become disenchanted when they still have a great deal of pain, and no relief of those headaches.

If you are someone that has headaches, and has had braces, wisdom teeth extractions, multiple dental restorations such as crowns, root canals, or you are aware that you clench or grind your teeth, or have been told that you do, you may be a person suffering from a bad bite. This will lead to headaches of unknown origin. This is called Myofacial Pain Dysfunction Syndrome or Temporal Mandibular Joint Disease.

Myofacial Pain Dysfunction Syndrome is pain in the face, neck, or head. It is a result of an overworking of the chewing muscles and can be quite debilitating. These muscles hurt, just like if you have ever lifted weights, or used other muscles and were not in shape, they would ache the next day. MPDS is the easiest of these two diseases to correct.

Temporal Mandibular Joint Disease is more complex to treat and actually involves the joint itself. People can hear popping and clicking in their ears. It can also be painful but not necessarily. This comes from the disc that separates the two jaw bones pulling off the lower jaw bone and getting stuck between the lower and upper jaw, as the lower jaw opens and closes. It can cause your jaw to lock open or closed. The jaw joint can go through 5 stages of breakdown getting more complex to treat with each stage.

A good diagnosis must be done with mounted tooth models on a chewing simulator to give the dentist a good understanding of the condition from a preliminary basis. The important thing is to get this looked after early before the disc completely pulls off the condyle (lower jaw bone). This way the condition can be minimized without surgery. If you have questions please call me at 572-8000 or visit my website at www.drtjbolt.com