Temporomandibular joint disorder—try saying that five times fast! It’s a mouthful—no pun intended. More commonly known as TMJ disorder, this condition doesn’t just cause debilitating facial pain. It can damage your dental health, too. Today, we’ll explore these troubling effects that temporomandibular joint disorder can have on your dental health.

What are TMJ disorders?

Your jaw is connected to your skull by a little hinge-like piece with a big name: the temporomandibular joint. Because that’s such a mouthful, it often gets shortened to TMJ. A TMJ disorder isn’t just one thing—the phrase actually refers to multiple conditions that fall under the same umbrella, to any disorder affecting this joint.

The symptoms of TMJ disorder will vary based on which type you have. However, the hallmark is jaw and facial pain, which shows up frequently with types like myofascial or intraarticular TMJ disorder. These common occurrences leave people in intense pain and tenderness, and sometimes even unable to fully open their mouth.

Other symptoms include:

Headache

Ringing in the ears

Locked jaw (unable to move the jaw out of one fixed position)

Unusual popping of the jaw

Dizziness

Swollen jaw

The Konig dentistry explains why this is so devastating to the body: “Structural stress from a misaligned TMJ is the worst kind of physical stress because there is no way the body can find relief for it. An injured limb can be rested, but it is impossible to leave the TMJ inactive. Without realizing it, we swallow hundreds of times a day, and at night we may clench or grind our teeth. Every time those teeth meet in incorrect occlusion, there is stress. To compensate for it, the jaw muscles begin to hold a tense unnatural position; and before long, the tension travels by chain reaction throughout the body.”

How does it affect dental health?

The big question is, how does all this tension and stress affect the teeth?

As one source explains, “TMJ can cause your jaws to move out of alignment, a condition known as malocclusion. The misalignment affects the angle and overall health of both upper and lower sets of teeth….” A malocclusion is a serious dental condition, and as you might imagine, it comes with serious dental consequences.

The Cleveland Clinic notes that a malocclusion may cause difficulty or discomfort in chewing and prevent one from biting correctly. TMJ disorders have also been linked with bruxism, a condition in which teeth can be damaged through excessive grinding. The causal link has never been conclusively demonstrated, but it seems that for many people, TMJ disorder and bruxism go together.

How can I prevent myself from developing a TMJ disorder?

Protecting your teeth means avoiding a TMJ disorder—trust us, you’ll be thankful you did.

Some easy solutions for this are:

· Sleeping with a mouthguard on if you have bruxism. Like we said, the relationship between grinding your teeth and TMJ disorder is complex and the causal link is not conclusive, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Plus, excessive grinding can damage your teeth on its own terms. If you know you have a tendency to grind your teeth while asleep, it’s best to wear a nightguard to protect yourself from that.

· Avoiding troublemaking foods. What are troublemaking foods? Anything that causes undue stress on your teeth and jaws—think hard and sticky substances, or anything especially chewy that demands a lot from your mouth.

· Take a bubble bath. Okay, it doesn’t actually have to be bubble bath, but do something that relaxes you. The main point is to keep stress under control, because stress causes tension in the jaw. This tension may cause TMJ disorder.

If you have reason to believe you might have TMJ disorder, speak to your dentist as soon as possible. We want to help you resolve the pain and avoid any dental issues that may result from it as quickly we can. 

To make your next appointment with Dr. Hargrove, contact our office today.