Overview

Many patients come to us for pain relief. Treatments such as heat, ice, electric stimulation and ultrasound (modalities) can be helpful in the treatment of acutely inflamed and irritated tissues, but we believe it is more important to identify and treat the reasons why your tissues have become inflamed and irritated to begin with. For this reason, we examine the entire body to identify and treat not just the pain, but also the source of the pain.

TMJ:

The temporomandibular joint disorders commonly occur due to excessive motion between the jaw and the articular disc of the joint resulting in loss of mouth opening. With excessive motion of the joint, the capsule that surrounds the joint can break down allowing the disc to move out of place causing pain, functional loss of motion and potential arthritic changes over time. TMJ dysfunction can be caused by physical or emotional stress causing you to grind your teeth or clench your jaw. This can occur due to:

1. Trauma: acute trauma due to getting hit or dislocation of the jaw or chronic trauma such as repetitive clicking or locking of the jaw leading to general loss of motion and pain
   
2. Reciprocal clicking of the TMJ: This signifies the articular disc, located between your jaw and skull, is displaced and then replaced within the joint. Occasionally, people may experience jaw locking which occurs when the disc does not return to its original position after being displaced.

Treatment:

1. Diminish symptoms through the use of modalities and pain reducing exercises
   
   
2. Provide stabilization and movement control exercises to control excess jaw motion during functional mouth opening
   
   
3. Prevention: Instruction in a personalized home exercise program to prevent reoccurrence of the problem