Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD)

Your temporomandibular joint, or TMJ, connects your jawbone to your skull at your temporal bone. It’s necessary for talking, chewing, and swallowing. You need it just to open your mouth! If you experience pain or discomfort when doing any of those tasks, you may have a temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD). 

 

TMD is caused by stress, along with the clenching and grinding of the teeth and jaws (bruxism). Other possibilities are facial trauma or inflammatory conditions.

 

The common symptoms of TMD:

• Jaw becoming stuck in an open position


• Difficulty chewing and opening your mouth


• Ear pain, accompanied by headaches


• Popping or clicking noise when moving the jaw


• Teeth grinding

 

The biggest factor for TMD is teeth grinding. Many people do it without even realizing it! When you grind your teeth, your top and bottom rows scrape against each other. This wears down your enamel and exposes the dentin. Dentin is incredibly sensitive, causing discomfort and pain.

 

For short-term relief, apply hot/cold packs to the affected area. Do this in 15-minute intervals for the best results. You should also take over-the-counter pain medications. Sometimes, a nightguard is needed. This prevents your teeth from grinding against each other while you sleep. 

 

 

Cleaning a Night Guard

We at the Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania treat a lot of people who have suffered damage from temporomandibular joint disorder. Many of them damaged their teeth by grinding or clenching them at night. But some people have a lot of success using night guards to avoid tooth damage or protect replacement teeth. Since we want patients to be able to enjoy their teeth for as long as possible, we wanted to provide some guidance on cleaning night guards and preventing oral infections.

Wearers will remove their night guard each morning upon waking up. There are antibacterial rinses commercially available for soaking night guards in, and antibacterial soap and water work well for cleaning, too. But people still commonly brush their night guards to ensure they have removed bacterial build-up. If they do, it is important for them to avoid hard-bristled toothbrushes or toothpaste with extra fluoride, which won’t protect plastic and may even scratch it.

The protocol for maintaining a night guard doesn’t differ too much from maintaining a denture, except for one key thing: a night guard needs to be kept dry. The case it is kept in should be ventilated and should also be cleaned daily with antibacterial soap. When not in use, the night guard should be kept out of extreme heat, which could warp it. A wearer should always brush and floss prior to putting it back in at night.

The Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania operate in Philadelphia, Folsom, and Clifton Heights. Visit Oral Surgery PA or call 215-463-4141.

What Is TMD?

The temporomandibular joint is a hinge that connects your jaw bone (mandible) to the temporal bones in your skull, in front of each ear.  A general term for any problem or issue with this joint is temporomandibular disorder, or TMD. The doctors at Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania can help patients prevent and recover from negative effects of TMD.

Patients that grind or clench their teeth often end up with a sore jaw.  Other patients experience injuries with facial trauma that cause jaw pain, or result in the patient feeling their jaw gets stuck or ‘locks’ in either an open or closed position.  A custom night guard keeps the jaw in a neutral position during sleep, and this helps many patients find relief from TMD symptoms.  For any pain, your dentist may recommend an over-the-counter painkiller or warm and cold compresses.  To prevent further discomfort, you may be assigned stretches for your jaw. 

Whatever your symptoms, you don’t have to suffer with discomfort in your jaw.  To learn more about TMD and the services provided at the practice, visit www.oralsurgerypa.com for more information. To schedule an appointment with one of our doctors at Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, call 215-463-4141.

Stress and Tooth Damage

Some common causes of enamel erosion include periodontal disease and acid reflux, but the public is increasingly becoming aware of how stress can contribute to tooth damage.

There are two ways in which stress is known to harm oral health: by worsening periodontal disease and by causing bruxism. When people are stressed, their immune systems don’t function as well. This prevents the body from fighting off infections, allowing bacteria to increase their activity in the gum pockets. In turn, they create plaque, leading to tooth and gum decay, and in the worst cases, damaging the jaw bones.

Bruxism, also known as teeth grinding or clenching, can be caused by many things, but stress is one of the most common contributors. As people put strain on their teeth, the enamel wears off or becomes cracked. It is also possible for the teeth to shift out of alignment as a result of prolonged pressure, which weakens their gum and bone support.

Many dentists try to limit the effects of bruxism with night guards. But our specialty office offers implants for people who have suffered the worst damage, including those who have suffered cracked roots.

Dr. Ramin Bahram operates the Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania at 2546 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19145. To schedule an appointment, call 215-463-4141 or visit OralSurgeryPA.com and fill out a contact sheet.

 

Soft Food Diet for TMJ Relief

If you suffer from a TMJ disorder, you may notice a clicking or a popping in your jaw when you try to eat your favorite foods. This is because symptoms of TMJ disorder can include jaw discomfort and tenderness or pain when opening or closing the mouth. At Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania, we don’t want you to live on a soft diet, but incorporating soft foods into your diet may alleviate your discomfort.

Soft foods give your jaw and temporomandibular joints the opportunity to rest and heal. Some excellent (and healthy) foods to eat include cooked vegetables and fruits, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, smoothies, soup, and yogurt. If you must eat food that requires a heavy amount of chewing, we recommended chopping it up into small pieces. If you have a sweet tooth, soft cakes, cobblers and cheesecake are good things to choose from.

If you are experiencing jaw pain, please give us a call to discuss your treatment options. To learn more about the services we provide at our practice, visit www.oralsurgerypa.com for more information. To schedule an appointment with one of our doctors at Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, call 215-463-4141. 

TMJ Foods to Avoid

If you’ve been diagnosed with a TMJ disorder, our doctors at Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania want to assure that you are pain-free. If you have TMJ/TMD you may want to avoid certain types of foods that may be making your condition worse. We don’t recommend making any drastic changes, but we do suggest incorporating softer foods into your diet. TMJ is a chronic condition that requires self-care measures.

The constant motion of your jaw can aggravate your joint pain when chewy foods are a staple of your diet. This is because your jaw works overtime when you consume chewy foods such as caramel, taffy, chewing gum and tougher cuts of meat and fish (lobster). Types of food to avoid include chewy snacks, fatty foods, and foods that are cut into large pieces. To summarize, any type of food that allows you to open your mouth wide or chew for long periods of time may aggravate your TMJ. Instead, we recommend incorporating more soft foods into your diet, such as cooked veggies, soft bread, and yogurt.

To learn more about the services we provide at our practice, visit www.oralsurgerypa.com for more information. To schedule an appointment with one of our doctors at Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, call 215-463-4141.