Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD)
Symptoms of TMJ Disorders Include:
Jaw discomfort or soreness (most often in the morning or late afternoon)
Headaches
Pain spreading behind the eyes, in the face, shoulder, neck and/or back
Earaches or ringing in the ears (not due to an infection)
Clicking or popping of the jaw
Locking of the jaw
Limited mouth motions
Clenching or grinding of the teeth
Dizziness
Sensitivity of the teeth without the presence of oral health disease
A change in the way the upper and lower teeth fit together.
Can Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy help with TMJ Disorders:
With Nancy Magar’s years of experience working with children (usually adolescent age) and adults and providing orofacial myofunctional examinations she often saw many of the above symptoms listed in their case histories. With adults that had chronic jaw pain they had often exhausted numerous treatment modalities by the time they found her clinic. In many adults whose main complaint was jaw pain, during the initial assessment a posterior or anterior tongue tie was often discovered and most had an incorrect oral resting posture and had abnormal swallowing patterns. Many also had excessive tension in the neck, jaw and facial muscles when speaking (due to compensations) and a common complaint was often that their mouths were exhausted by the end of the day with talking. Teeth grinding in children and adults is now seen as a possible compromise with the airway when sleeping and requires further investigation than just developing a night guard. Teeth grinding occurs as a compensation to help recruit the jaw muscles to increase tone and function to keep the airway open when sleeping.
Nancy’s role with patients that have TMJ Disorders is to assist with establishing muscle harmony in the orofacial complex. Each TMD patient is unique and therapy is best to only begin once the patient has been cleared by their TMJ disorder specialist.
Call us today and schedule an appointment if you or your child has symptoms of TMD