- injury or trauma
- certain skull formations
- genetics
- uneven dentistry,
you may not have experienced any long term success for your chronic headaches and migraines, aching jaw and neck pain.ย If you have tried other treatments with little help, the good news is that it may be possible for your dentist to relieve your TMJ pain while improving your smile.
It starts with a diagnosis
The first step in being able to provide optimum treatment is to conduct a thorough clinical examination to determine the specific issues causing your jaw joint disorder. To achieve this, your dentist may use:
- Computerized Jaw Tracking
- EMGs
- Sonography
- CT-Scan imaging
to help obtain an accurate diagnosis and comprehensive understanding of your jaw bone and dental structure.
Relaxing your jaw
There are many types of orthotic devices designed to help patients in varying degrees of TMJ treatment to help move the jaw into a proper alignment and minimize or eliminate excessive jaw clenching and teeth grinding.Ultra-low frequency TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) units are also used to help jaw muscles relax.
Next steps
Many patients do not want to continue wearing their orthotic device once the initial treatment begins to ease their pain. Unfortunately, these devices stabilize the jaw, but only while being worn. They do not permanently correct the issues that initially caused your jaw or bite to become misaligned.
Phase II treatment plan
Phase II treatment is essentially a full mouth reconstruction using advanced techniques to correct individual dental issues with the focused goals of permanently correcting your bite, realigning your jaw and relieving your TMJ pain. Specific procedures used as needed include:
- Orthodontics to realign teeth or correct dental occlusions
- Veneers and crowns to repair broken, cracked or chipped teeth
- Dental bridges or implants to replace missing teeth
Where can you learn more?
If you would like to learn more about how reconstructive dentistry can help you relieve your TMJ pain and improve your smile, contact yourย Milwaukee dentist. He or she will answer your questions and provide more details about advanced treatment options.