Temporomandibular joint disorders is the scientific name that describes a series of disorders that affect the area around the jaw. The temporomandibular joint is the joint that enables your jaw to move up and down – chew, talk, yawn, anything really that has to do with moving your jaw joint up and down. This joint is controlled, or allowed to swivel by a ball of muscles that enables the opening and closing of the jaw. It is actually these rounded muscles, called condyles that connect the lower jaw to the upper jaw.
If you want to feel your temporomandibular joint, touch your face at the end of your jaw and just after your ear, and then open your mouth wide. That movement, that sliding that you feel as you open your jaw, is enabled by this set of muscles. Actually without it, we would not be able to move around our jaws, not be able to chew, yawn or even talk.
Sometimes, this bunch of muscles can get inflamed. This can happen due to various reasons, mostly overuse of the muscle or even just trauma. Reasons why these muscles would get strained are many, but I’m going to list just a few here:
- Trauma – if your jaw takes a heavy hit, it’s likely that these muscles will get bruised or even broken.
- Joint diseases like arthritis or osteoarthritis can go as far as affecting the jaw joint.
- Excessive gum chewing – in fact, if you are not a regular gum chewer, and then chew gum for an extended period you will feel a lot of discomfort in this joint after a short while.
- Opening your jaw too wide – for whatever reason, if you open your jaw too wide, you are likely to break some muscles and experience pain.
- Jaw thrusting – Some people are in the habit of thrusting their lower jaw forward. Over time, this wears out the jaw joint muscles and can lead to problems.
- Incorrectly placed teeth braces – if braces sit misaligned on the jaw, they are likely to eventually cause inflation and pain to this joint.
- Teeth grinding – this is a different condition all on its own, where people will not be able to control grinding their teeth, especially when they are sleeping.
- Your posture – many people lean forward when working on their computers and put a lot of strain on the neck muscles which in turn puts strain on the jaw joint muscles.
Once the temporomandibular joint is injured, it can lead to a series of disorders. Common TMJ symptoms are:
1. Ear pain – this will be accompanied by inflation and swelling at the point where the jaw meets the ear.
2. Headaches – They will be continuous and may not ease with normal headache medication. You will have to get the condition treated to get rid of the headaches.
3. Toothaches – your molars, towards the end of your jaw, will be painful and you will likely have a hard time biting something.
4. You might hear a clicking sound when you open your mouth.
5. Your jaw will feel sore – in fact, you will hardly be able to open your mouth without pain.
How do you cure it?
The best thing to do is to avoid the condition in the first place. Do not over-chew or do things with your jaw that are likely to put strain on it. If you find that you already have a problem, you can see a doctor. They will do several tests to determine exactly which specific muscles are affected. They will then prescribe muscle relaxants and painkillers, and may give you some therapy to exercise your jaw. Exercise your jaw muscles regularly, and use hot and cold packs when in pain.
Different treatment is given to teeth grinders, because the grinding problem has to be addressed in itself. Usually, bite guards are prescribed to minimize the grinding. Once the grinding is reduced, the jaw pain can then be addressed.
Temporomandibular joint disorders can be quite uncomfortable and if not given proper attention can lead to degeneration of other surrounding muscles and become expensive to treat. Treat your jaws with care, exercise them regularly (this can be done at any time really, when you are relaxing, walking – it does not need you to set aside time). Do not over-chew, and of course if you can, avoid any kind of trauma to the jaw.
