TMJ Therapy – Lakewood, CO
Get Rid of Chronic Jaw Pain & Headaches
The TMJ, or temporomandibular joints, are very important but often overlooked aspects of oral health. They're the set of hinges in your jaw that allows it to move fluidly, enabling you to speak, eat, laugh, and yawn. The TMJ can often fall victim to strain, stress, injury, or arthritis, which can lead to pain and stiffness in the facial muscles, causing the jaw to lock up. TMJ-related issues are also one of the most common causes of persistent tension headaches! At Lakewood Complete Dentistry, we’re able to diagnose and treat these kinds of problems using state-of-the-art dental techology, so patients can get exactly what they need without having to see a specialist.
Why Choose Lakewood Complete Dentistry for TMJ Therapy
- Able to diagnose & treat problems without a specialist
- Can eliminate persistent face, head, shoulder, & neck pain
- Fast pain relief with Botox
Diagnosis & Treatment
TMJ problems can have multiple causes like we touched on above, and the key to figuring out the appropriate treatment is to determine which particular one is affecting a patient. If you report or exhibit any problems with your TMJ, we’ll perform a number of exams and scans to investigate the health of the joint. With this information, we can usually find the source of the pain, and then we can recommend one of the following treatment options:
Equilibration/Occlusal Adjustments
Sometimes, a misaligned bite can prevent the teeth from closing properly, preventing the muscles around the TMJ from ever fully relaxing, which can lead to quite a bit of stiffness and pain. To address this, we can perform what is called an equilibration or occlusal adjustment, in which we slightly reshape a few key teeth so that they come together correctly and allow the muscles to reach their natural resting position.
Occlusal Splints
An occlusal splint is a custom-made mouthpiece that a TMJ patient wears to bed, and it works by slightly shifting the jaw into a more relaxed position, enabling the stressed muscles to gradually heal themselves. This kind of appliance can also help protect the teeth from nighttime grinding, which is a common symptom of TMJ-issues. After a few weeks of consistent use, a patient should be able to go throughout their day pain-free.
Botox Injections
Many people are familiar with Botox as a treatment for reducing wrinkles and fine lines, but it has actually been successfully used as a pain reliever for many years as well. With a few injections of Botox, Dr. Artino can calm strained and spasming jaw muscles in order to quickly relieve TMJ-related pain in just minutes.