What is TMJ
TMJ is the short for Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction, which is an illness that affects your jaw movements. The Temporomandibular Joint is the actual joint that links your lower jaw to your temporal bone in your skull. This joint is vital for eating, talking, chewing and even yawning. Thus when you are suffering from TMJ, this means that you will experience problems when you are eating or talking.
When you have a TMJ or Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction, you can experience many problems. First of all your jaw joints may become swollen and inflamed. As a result, you can also feel extreme pain. In cases where TMJ has progressed, you can have problems that cause your jaw to lose its alignment. In severe cases, you might not even be able to open or close your jaw properly. All of the symptoms stated above may also cause you to have your teeth misaligned and malocclusion will occur in your teeth. (It means that when you press your teeth together, the upper and the lower jaw will not meet perfectly and your upper or lower jaw will be out of place). Of course, all of these symptoms of TMJ are linked to each other. This means that once one of them occurs, it will trigger other symptoms to take place as your jaw muscles may become stiffer and thus more swollen. This in turn will cause further inflammation of the tissue in the surrounding region.
As you can see, TMJ is a difficult and a silent disease. This means that people who have TMJ will look perfectly normal, yet they will feel lots of pain and discomfort. TMJ is a disease that can be caused by variety of factors. Many studies have shown that prolonged chewing of gum is a number one factor in worn down jaws and in TMJ. Besides chewing gum, grinding your teeth harshly or biting down on objects such as a pen or pencil is the second most common cause of TMJ. As further causes, arthritis and trauma due to major accidents can be stated.
The treatment of TMJ can be much more difficult than it looks. Usually in mild cases, things like eating soft – liquid foods, putting heat packs on the swollen area, stopping chewing gum and yawning etc. is done for treatment. However, as cases become more serious, anti inflammation medicine is taken to reduce the swelling and to dull the pain. In addition, muscle relaxants may also be prescribed to relieve the pressure on your jaw muscles. When all the measures stated above don’t work, your physician may recommend using joint splinters to solve the problem. In extreme cases, surgery may become your only option. Thus it is always easier to prevent TMJ then to treat it.
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