TMD / TMJ

Serving Fort Lauderdale, Boynton Beach, Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, and Boca Raton, Florida

TMJ Patient in West Palm Beach

TMD is an acronym for Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, a misalignment of the jaw that affects hundreds of thousands of Americans. Most of them do not know what is causing their symptoms. TMD can affect almost every area of your life, including:

  • How you eat
  • Your dental health
  • How well you sleep
  • Your daily comfort
  • Your posture and how you walk
  • Your stress levels

The jaw joints are in front of the ears. They are the most flexible joints in the body, as they can move three ways: up and down, sideways, and forward and back. They are ball-and-socket joints with a cartilage pad between the two bone surfaces. They can be suddenly put out of alignment by an accident or impact to the side of the head; and they can be slowly pushed out of alignment by chronic tooth grinding or jaw clenching, or by misaligned teeth. When one or both jaw joints are misaligned, your bite is misaligned.

Diagnosing TMD
TMD can be diagnosed and treated through neuromuscular dentistry. Most patients who see Neuromuscular Dentist, Dr. John Sarris for help with their jaw or facial pain do not know that they have TMD. Rather, they feel they are suffering from a particular symptom, or they are interested in cosmetic dentistry and, during their consultation with Dr. Sarris, they mention that they have one or more of the following symptoms:

  • Migraine-like headaches
  • Jaw pain from chewing
  • Popping or clicking of the jaw joint
  • Earaches
  • Swelling in the side of the face
  • Worn teeth from jaw clenching or tooth grinding
  • Difficulty opening or closing the mouth
  • Dizziness
  • Unexplained pain in the neck, shoulders or back
  • Toothaches

All these symptoms are not always caused by TMD, but a thorough examination can determine if TMD is the cause of your discomfort. Dr. Sarris can use the K-7 Evaluation System to gather precise data on your jaw muscle movements, muscle electrical activity, and jaw joint sounds. He can use the TENS unit to establish your correct jaw position – a position that you may not have had for many years. Please see our Dental Technology page for more on these diagnostic tools.

If Dr. Sarris determines that you do in fact have TMD, he can treat the condition to give you relief and comfort.

TMD Treatment
By using the TENS unit to precisely determine your correct jaw position, Dr. Sarris has established the goal of your treatment – to make correct jaw position permanent. Because each TMD case is individual, the treatment varies between patients.

Treatments may include dental work if misaligned teeth have contributed to the jaw misalignment. Dr. Sarris might recommend teeth realignment using Invisalign or he might replace some tooth crowns to create better meeting of the upper and lower jaws.

He might use the TENS unit again to relax the jaw muscles. They may need to be retrained in how to close your mouth, so as to eliminate the chronic tension. To that end, Dr. Sarris might also have a custom mouthguard made to hold your jaw in its correct position while you sleep.

In some cases, TMD is the reason why a person might feel dental anxiety. It may be painful to hold the mouth open for very long. Since Dr. Sarris offers sedation dentistry, he understands this and will take steps to help you relax for treatment.

You can read more on the Questions About TMJ Disorder page.

Dr. Sarris has completed advanced training in neuromuscular dentistry at the  Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies. He is fully qualified to diagnose and treat TMD.

If you are experiencing any of the symptoms above, please contact Neuromuscular Dentist, Dr. Sarris today for a complimentary neuromuscular dentistry consultation. Our office serves TMD / TMJ patients in Boynton Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Boca Raton, Florida.

 

Contact Us
561.278.7450
John G. Sarris, D.M.D., P.A.
1911 S. Federal Highway, Suite 600
Delray Beach, Florida 33483