Be aware that we are not doctors, nor does anything we write about constitute anything other than personal experiences or observations! Don’t take our word for anything you read on this site, do your own research. Listening to others who sell “miracle cure for TMJ” has only led many down a path of pain and suffering. Always ALWAYS! consult your doctor or qualified medical practitioner for real advice.

There are some invasive procedures that do not involve TMJ surgery that your doctor could perform. These only require a local anesthesia and can be performed right in the doctors office. One way is by essentially “washing out” your temporomandibular joint with a cleaning solution. This involves two injections, one needle injects a cleaning solution, and the other syringe removes it from the joint. This is quick and relatively painless and can provide almost immediate relief to TMJ sufferers. Also, pain medication can then be injected later to help further reduce the levels of discomfort.

There are also cortisone medications that can be injected that will help reduce the inflammation in the joint as well as the pain levels.

Both of these procedures are relatively non invasive and will provide quick relief. Usually your doctor or dentist won’t even consider these until you have tried the more conservative treatments first. But if the pain persists, and you have honestly tried the other home TMJ treatments then be honest with your doctor, tell them exactly what you are feeling and that it is not “just a headache or stress” and that you need help.

There is no cure for TMJ syndrome, however these procedures can often help alleviate the pain and symptoms quickly and for extended periods of time. Then with regular maintenance at home you can keep the levels of pain down and carry on a normal life.

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Many cases of TMJ pain can be treated by simply taking anti-inflamitory medications like ibuprofen or aspirin or tylenol. Certain herbs like Kava Kava have had an enormous impact on even many severe cases of TMJ, so be sure to try these if nothing else has worked for you yet.

Also, eating a diet of soft foods and staying far away from anything chewy or crunchy will avoid aggravating the problem. As difficult as it may be, a TMJ treatment may require that you not use the muscles of your mouth and jaw as much, therefore try to avoid “over smiling” and stressing the jaws by watching stressful shows and movies. Often people will grind their teeth or tire out the jaw muscles when stressed or excited and this aggravates the jaw joints.

A cold compress followed by a warm compress on the jaw often helps relieve immediate pain and swelling. The cold helps the muscles, and the heat helps the joints by promoting blood flow. By resting your jaw in this way often it will help the joint heal and repair itself, at least temporarily. Also avoiding opening your mouth too wide, and employing some mild stretching, relaxation, and stress reduction techniques will help alleviate mild to moderate symptoms.

You may be given a mouth guard or bite plate/splint to help you reduce the jaw clenching and/or teeth grinding that goes on at night time. These splints should help reduce the muscle tension, but if the pain increases then drop these puppies like they were hot potatoes.

The key to any TMJ treatment is NON INVASIVE procedures first. Try everything you can to relieve the pain and treat the symptoms before you even consider a more invasive treatment like surgery.

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Since most TMJ sufferers are missing pieces of their actual jaw bone or cartlidge that helps keep the jaw in place, your muscles actually have to work harder than an average person just to do the normal things. When these muscles get fatigued, then the problems start to happen as the jaw pops out of place, the joints get inflamed, and the headaches start all over again.

Perhaps you love a good steak dinner, or some delicious beef jerky, crunchy chips, or even just granola in the morning. Think about what it is doing to your jaw though before you eat it. Think about how hard you will have to chew everything before you go ahead and eat it. This will help you become more concoius of what you are doing to your already overworked jaw muscles, and it will help your TMJ as a result. The old saying to chew your food 30 times before you swallow does NOT apply to TMJ sufferers.

Just making simple adjustments to how and what you eat can make huge improvements on our TMJ pain.

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The temporomandibular joints or the jaw joints are located on front of each ear. They connect the lower jaw bone to the skull and allow the movement necessary for biting, chewing, speaking, yawning and everything that concerns the opening and closing of your mouth. There several causes pointed out for TNJ disorders. Sleep disorders such as teeth grinding and teeth clenching significantly increase the wear and tear of the cartilage that line the temporomandibular joints. Habitual gum chewing and fingernail biting can also increase the occurrence of this disorder. There are also several dental problems and misalignment of the teeth that can cause TMJ disorders. It has also been found out that previous trauma that lead top fractures in the jaw increase the possibility of TMJ disorders.

There are several symptoms to watch out to see if you are possibly suffering from TMJ disorders. These are headaches, ear pain, sounds when you open and close your mouth, dizziness, a feeling of fullness in the ear, or when you experience an uncomfortable ringing or noise in the ear for no unknown reasons. If you have these symptoms, it might be advisable that you consult medical experts that can help you recommend the best kind of treatment to treat the disorder before it even gets worse. Treatment may include different health-care disciplines such as dentistry, neurology, physical therapy, and psychology. The most immediate consultation that you might need to get is that of a dentist.

Among the best TMJ clinics in the country are in Scottsdale, Arizona. There are several of these clinics that specialize in TMJ treatments and have been highly trained in the non-surgical treatment of TMJ disorders. Highly qualified TMJ dentists in Scottsdale can determine the best course of treatment for your specific case of TMJ disorder beginning from a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment to be able to eliminate the symptoms causes by TMJ disorders using three simple treatment processes: first to relieve muscle spasm and pain, then stabilize the bite and of course a long-term course of permanently treating your TMJ disorder.

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Just a short post today folks, but we wanted to let everybody know that Kava Kava really worked for my TMJ! It had been getting pretty bad there for a while, I would wake up and my jaw would hurt from grinding my teeth all night or clenching my muscles. (I must have been having stressfull dreams) We picked up some Kava from a local pharmacy and I have been taking it for the past week. Lo and Behold it actually works!

This stuff is great! It’s non addictive, has no known negative side effects when taken in proper dosages (and even when taken in large dosages the negative side effects aren’t really for sure related to the Kava root). If you put it in a drink and chugg it like the natives did then you might get a little inebriated, but taking it in pill form is very hard to overdose. And it’s all natural so it’s much better for you than Valume or any of the other drugs that are muscle relaxants.

I just follow the recommended dosages on the back of the bottle. I take it throughout the day and it relieves a ton of stress. Then I take a double dose at bed to help me sleep and I wake up feeling relaxed and loose.

I’m going to be scaling back on how much I take once I get this darned tightness to go away, but I’m thoroughly impressed with this herb and very happy it is relieving my TMJ symptoms!

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Mouth guards and splints have traditionally been used to help relieve jaw clenching and the muscle pain associated with TMJ. Many take anti inflammatory medication like Ibuprofen and Advil (technically they are the same thing…). This is good, though users have been known to develop an immunity to Advil and require larger and larger doses to get even minimal results.

In such cases, sometimes it is good to branch out into other kinds of medications. Kava Kava root is a very popular herbal remedy to TMJ pain, or indeed muscle pain in general. It especailly helps reduce the jaw clenching and muscle tightness that often occurs while sleeping. Here’s one of the best short overviews we could find on the net from http://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/kavakava.htm:

Description - Kava Kava (Piper methysticum) is approved in Europe as a treatment for nervous anxiety, depression, insomnia, and restlessness.  Clinical studies have found Kava Kava as effective as benzodiazepine drugs but without the undesirable side effects (impaired mental acuity and addiction).

Kava is also an antispasmodic and  muscle relaxant. It has anesthetic effects on the urinary tubules and bladder.  With its analgesic properties, Kava is a good remedy for chronic pain. Kava is also effective for intestinal colic (pain) caused by IBS.

Suggested dose: 1 Capsule (40-75 mg kavalactones per cap) 1-3 times per day.

Honestly though, I haven’t found this to be overly effective in helping my TMJ. I haven’t tried it for a long time, so maybe it deserves another shot. Does Kava Kava work for you? What have you found that helps relieve the pressure and pain?

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Today’s post is about a website at TMJscale.com. Pain Resource Center, Inc. is an On-line testing, assessment and management tools for clinicians evaluating and treating craniofacial disorders (’TMJ’) and chronic pain and resources for individuals with ‘TMJ’ including patient self-testing with the widely used TMJ Scale.

This website provides a diagnostic tool that asks a range of questions about you and your symptoms and determines the probability that you suffer from a TM joint problem. This will not provide the final TMJ diagnosis, but it is very similar to the testing that your dentist will do to diagnosis your disorder, and at a fraction the cost.

It will check for symptoms like:

• Pain in the jaw joints and surrounding muscles of the face, head and neck
• Problems of the teeth not fitting properly or the bite feeling off, uncomfortable or changing
• Noises and sounds coming from the jaw joint, like clicking, popping or grinding
• Problems opening and closing the jaw and mouth, such as locking or sideways deviation
• Limitations in moving the jaw through a full range of motion, both opening and sideways

They say that this test has an 88%-93% accuracy rate. There’s no way for an online test to be 100% accurate, but it will help a person get a better idea of what is going on with their jaw. It costs $14.95 to perform the test, and it will take about 20 minutes to complete.

You can then take the results to your TMJ dentist or doctor and it will help them in diagnosing your disorder. Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to TMJ, so it’s always good to do your research. But, of course, nothing can replace having a real doctor look at you and give a real diagnosis.

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Tell your medical professional how you feel, exactly how. Inform yourself on possible treatments, important factors, and necessary knowledge before you undertake any medical treatment recommended by your doctor. If they are not willing to listen and answer your questions satisfactorily then perhaps you need a new dentist or doctor.

A good TMJ dentist will listen to what you have to say, they will have answers and reasons for why they are doing what they are doing, and more importantly, they will respect you as a patient. If you have a concern, then bring it up to your TMJ dentist. Do not be afraid to ask for medication if the pain is too intense. Quite often Ibuprofen doesn’t cut it. Especially if you have been taking it for a long period of time and have built up a resistance. Quite often, due to the fact that doctors and dentist specialists refer patients and never really build up a relationship with them, and never feel at ease prescribing any real pain medication. This is where you need to be vocal and tell them exactly how you are feeling, exactly how the medication you are taking is/isn’t working, and anything else that might be relevant.

Don’t live in pain if you don’t have to. We will be writing more on TMJ pain later. But for now, if your TMJ dentist isn’t willing to talk things over with you and is not taking your pain seriously, then perhaps it is time for a second opinion.

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You may have gone undiagnosed for a long time due to the fact that this disorder is notoriously difficult to diagnose. There are many different culprits for each of those symptoms, and all too often TMJ is not high on the list of things to check for. More recognized symptoms of TMJ are tension and pain in the muscles of the jaw, painful headaches and neck pain, back pain and ear pain, and even migraines. If you grind your teeth or clench them, perhaps when asleep, this only serves to aggravate the condition and increase the pain.

There are some solutions if you have one of these symptoms of TMJ. One of the most popular and easiest ways to cure teeth grinding and jaw clenching is by using dental mouth guards or mouth splints. These are often custom made to form fit your mouth by your dentist and can relieve tension in your TM joints when you are sleeping. There are full mouth guards which fit on your upper teeth, and there are also the popular NTI which is only worn on the front upper teeth. These are much more comfortable then their full mouth counterparts. If you use them regularly, and regularity is the key, they will alleviate the symptoms and even cure the problem all together. For many the have had a very rate of success for curing jaw clenching.

Do not self diagnose yourself. There are many causes of TMJ, and the symptoms may or may not tell you what exactly is wrong. Stress and other environmental issues can often cause similar symptoms. Always consult your doctor or dentist for an informed (hopefully) opinion.

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TMJ surgery is one option for an invasive cure for a bad TM joint. However, be sure you do your research as there are a lot of mixed reviews as to the effectiveness of this procedure. The surgery itself is highly painful and invasive. Many end up experiencing worsening symptoms, or no relief at all. The sinus cavities are very near to the joint, and there is a high percentage that your TMJ symptoms could be alleviated, but you could end up suffering from migraines for the rest of your life. Not a good solution. TMJ surgery is usually always a last resort, and for those who have gone through with it, when asked if they would do it again, they usually say “No!”

Since diagnosing TMJ is a relatively new field for medicine, your doctor may not have given you the proper diagnosis. Consult an expert in TMJ for a correct and detailed diagnosis. Scottsdale Arizona has one of the best TMJ treatment centers in the country. Unfortunately my TMJ was the worst case they had ever dealt with at the time and they could offer me no real relief. You want your treatment to fit the cause of your TMJ pain so get a good diagnosis with a second and third opinion tacked on.

If surgery isn’t a good solution, what can you do? Think non invasive. While there is no real cure to TMJ there are plenty of ways you can manage the pain. Remember, these won’t cure your disorder, but they will help you prevent the worst of the pain from flaring up.

Diet- Eat foods that are soft, and avoid anything chewy or hard. Think about how hard your jaw has to work to eat certain foods, and avoid ones that end up overworking the muscles. Often with a simple adjustment in your diet you can greatly relieve your jaw pain.

Exercise- Get a list of approved exercises from your doctor or dentist. Do these exactly according to how you were instructed. Follow the guidelines closely as they are there for your protection. Strengthening the muscles around the jaw will help keep them in shape since they are compensating for the problem in the joint.

Massage- Gently massage your temples and jaw muscles. Also loosen up the neck and shoulder muscles that can become tight due to the pain that radiates out from the TM joint. Do this regularly and very gently and you can keep much of the pain at bay.

Manage Your Stress Levels- Often stress causes the TMJ condition to flare up or worsen. Avoid stress as much as you can. Learn to relax your jaw muscles as much as possible, even when in a stressful situation.

So really there is no cure for TMJ, but by following some basic guidelines and principles you can manage the pain.

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