The joint that keeps your jaw hinged to your skull is your TMJ, or temporomandibular joint. This joint gets a lot of use during one’s lifetime, and it can end up causing pain if that joint is not lined up just right during use. Pain in your TMJ can be the symptom of a much bigger problem, and it can lead to difficulty using your jaw without pain. If you have noticed pain when chewing, talking, or simply opening your mouth, you may need to see your dentist.

Most Common Symptoms of TMJ

Typically when you feel pain in your TMJ, you end up seeing your dentist first, but that can depend on what type of symptoms you get first. If you get pain when chewing, most people would associate this with the dentist since the pain originates in and around your mouth. However, if your pain originates around your ear, you may end up in the doctor’s office instead. You will likely notice pain before many of the other symptoms. You could also notice an ache that comes from the back of your jaw and radiates forward, a clicking when your jaw opens and closes, or trouble opening and closing your jaw when you are trying to do normal activities.

The Reasons Your TMJ May Hurt

Most people end up with pain in their TMJ due to misuse, injury, or arthritis. Sometimes misuse and injury can lead to the arthritis, so the pain could be a combination of multiple causes. You could also end up facing pain in your TMJ because over time, your joint has degraded from normal wear and tear, leaving you with aches and pain that could go on and progressively get worse, if not treated. Unfortunately, you may never know exactly what is causing the pain, but even if you do not know what caused it, there are ways to lessen or eliminate the pain.

Before You See the Dentist the First Time

Your dentist is going to ask you a few questions to determine the severity of your TMJ, so if you have the answers ahead of time, it will make the process easier. You should write down how long you have been experiencing symptoms, the type of symptoms that you experience and the frequency, the activities that tend to cause the most pain, the medications and herbal supplements that you take on a regular basis (both prescription and the over the counter ones), and how stressed out life has made you lately. All of these questions are going to tell your dentist some of the answers they will need to be able to help minimize your TMJ symptoms, and which treatments are best to start off with.

Treating the Symptoms of TMJ

Your dentist is going to want to see how your jaw moves as part of the diagnosis process. They will want to feel the motion in your jaw, and they will want to see how much, or how little, you are able to move your jaw. They may also order tests, such as having a CT scan or going in for x-rays. If the dentist suspects that your diagnosis is going to be complicated, they may even send you to have an MRI. The range of motion that your TMJ has will show them a lot about how severe your diagnosis may be. Once they have diagnosed TMJ, they will start figuring out a treatment plan with you. Some of the options they will tell you to try, and others they will ask if you want to try or not.

If your TMJ just started, and the dentist does not see anything that alarms them, they may have you take a few anti-inflammatories and see if the symptoms stop on their own. However, most of the time, the dentist will want to be a bit more proactive with treatment. Typically the dentist will start off with some type of pain reliever, either over the counter, or if that has proven to not manage your pain effectively, then they may take it to a prescription level. They will often suggest sleep aids when your symptoms get worse at night, and some dentists will even offer you muscle relaxers to help the TMJ relax some, which may help or alleviate the symptoms on its own.

On top of medications, most dentists also add in some type of a mouth guard to wear. These guards hold your jaw in place while you are inactive, and they help to let your TMJ rest. Some are soft and gel-like, while others are firm and do not allow for much motion of the jaw when it is not being used. Some dentists will also put you on a regimen of heat packs and ice packs. They will want you to use heat to help reduce the inflammation, and the cold to help numb the pain so that you can function more normally.

Some dentists will even ask you to see a counselor or therapist to help reduce the symptoms of TMJ. This can be because they want you to have extra knowledge about some of your current behaviors that are aggravating your symptoms, or it can be because they want you to learn how to more effectively manage your stress. When many people get stressed out, they clench their jaw or grind their teeth, often without even realizing they are doing it. These actions can increase the pain of your TMJ, and can make the condition harder to treat.

When medications, mouth guards, and counseling are ineffective, then the next step is a bit more invasive. First, the dentist can insert a needle and irrigate the jaw, removing any debris or other items that could be causing the pain. This can remove any piece of a bone spur or fragment that could be causing your pain, and help you almost immediately. Second, the dentist could inject medication into the joint to alleviate the pain. The most common options for this include steroids and cortisone. However, Botox is also a consideration that could help TMJ pain stop.

If all of these options are ineffective at stopping or reducing TMJ pain, then you need to consider surgery. This is usually only done when the problem with your TMJ is structural in nature. This means that the TMJ specialist will go in and correct the errors within the structure of the jaw, in an attempt to alleviate the pain that you are experiencing. This is always considered a last-resort option because the pain that you are going through is not always made better by surgical means.

If you are experiencing just a little bit of random TMJ pain, you should still get it checked. However, if you are not able to see the dentist, or your personal physician, right away, then you may want to try and ease the pain at home. You can try alternating heat packs with ice to help reduce the pain, you can try keeping your jaw still without clenching it, or you could try taking some over the counter anti-inflammatories to help reduce the swelling within the TMJ.

If you need help handling TMJ pain, then call Dr. Levy today, and let us help you start feeling better.