Sore or sensitive teeth are frequent symptoms of Temporomandibular Joint disorder, or TMJ.
Should your TMJ be the result of problems with your teeth, any number of them may be sore. If the TMJ disc is out of alignment, many people will commonly clench or grind their teeth and this is also a potential cause of having sensitive teeth.
Often times, patients that consult their dentist about their TMJ tooth pain, receive an incorrect diagnosis, which may lead to tooth extractions, or removing the tooth’s nerve by way of a root canal, in an erroneous attempt to alleviate the tooth pain. These approaches may only intensify the pain, instead of relieving it.
Neuromuscular dentists relieve TMJ tooth pain by going to the source of the problem. In most instances, correcting the patient’s bite can be done without surgery, and a more sustainable relief is reported.
Neuromuscular dentists are equipped with state-of-the-art technology to decide if the symptoms you are having are due to malocclusion and if so, the optimum position of your jaw. Computerized jaw tracking instruments are used by dentists to record jaw movement, resting position, and path of closure.
As soon as the neuromuscular dentist has decided that you are suffering from TMJ, he will be able to suggest a course of treatment to deal with your particular situation.
Treatments usually follow three steps. Your neuromuscular dentist will first seek to treat your symptoms, by relieving your pain. A technique that concentrates on relaxing the muscles through a gentle muscle massage, is very effective for this purpose, and the technology employed for this procedure is Ultra Low Frequency Transcutaneous Electrical Neural Simulation, also known as ULF-TENS.
The muscles are relaxed with the rhythmic pulses that increase blood flow and pumps out waste products. ULF-TENS also helps relieve TMJ tooth pain by stimulating the body’s production of endorphins, which are the body’s natural anesthetic.
In the next step of treatment, a temporary device called an orthotic is placed over the teeth. This allows your neuromuscular dentist to make easy adjustments to the plastic without having the need to adjust the teeth until the bite has been stabilized.
Once your TMJ tooth pain has been relieved and the bite has been stabilized, the dentist will then move on to the next step and adjust your bite to the correct position permanently.
Many people also find that online natural exercises such as those offered by TMJ No More are more effective than surgery or pills.
