Lincoln Dentist

TMJ Treatment - TMD

Lincoln TMJ Treatment - TMD

in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska and surrounding communities

In times past, many people lived with daily facial pain and headaches, taking prescribed or over-the-counter medication to control it. Many never did discover what was causing it. The field of neuromuscular dentistry is fairly new, and not all dentists are trained in it. Dr. Dodson at Adams Dental Center in Lincoln, NE is a attendee of the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Training. That training includes a thorough education in neuromuscular dentistry, and in how to diagnose and treat Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (abbreviated as either TMJ or TMD).

What is TMD?

TMD is the name for a misaligned bite. A neuromuscular dentist does not just work on your teeth and gums. Our teeth are embedded in the jawbone, which connects to the skull at the jaw joint, also known as the temporomandibular joint. When this joint moves up and down improperly, it causes your upper and lower teeth to meet improperly. This is your bite, and when they meet improperly it's known as a misaligned bite.

The jaw joint

You can feel it if you place a finger in front of your ear and open your mouth. Each of these two jaw joints consists of a ball and socket, with a cartilage pad in between to cushion their movement against each other. When the lower jaw is not correctly positioned against the cartilage pad, it can't move smoothly. The two bones move in an unnatural way. This is actually quite a common problem.

Think of how often each day we open and close our mouths. Each time we do that to talk, laugh, yawn, chew etc. we use the jaw muscles attached to the jawbone. When the jaw joint is misaligned, the muscles get strained as they're pulled slightly out of their proper positions each time.

Chronic muscle strain ends up hurting. There are several large nerves, with many branches, which run through the jaw and face area, extending throughout the head, neck and shoulders, and down to the hands. Ongoing muscle strain causes inflammation and swelling in the tissues around them, which puts pressure on the nerves. This gives you pain in whatever area of the nerve is being squeezed.

Because the jaw joint is a movable system, with bones, muscles, nerves, blood vessels and connective tissue, pain can be local or extensive, mild or severe, occasional or continual. TMD symptoms are different in each person, never the same twice. They can be any combination of:

  • Headaches, often severe, often considered to be migraines
  • Jaw pain
  • Earache
  • Ringing in the ears
  • Neck pain
  • Shoulder pain
  • Tingling in the fingers
  • Popping or clicking sounds in the jaw
  • Worn teeth
  • Cracked and loose teeth
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Blurry vision
  • Sore throat
  • Infected sinuses

If you have any combination of these symptoms, and have wondered for some time whether anything can be done about it, you have come to the right place. Why not contact us and set up a free consultation? Dr. Dodson can assess your entire dental health and start to give you the information you've probably been missing as you suffered through these painful and annoying symptoms. If those symptoms have a dental cause, why not learn that fact, so you can start getting some effective TMJ treatment, and eliminate that pain? We hope to hear from you soon.

 

402.484.6666
Contact us

Adams Dental Center
8251 Northwoods Drive
Lincoln, NE 68505