A San Diego neuromuscular dentist can help resolve many dental problems, one of them being TMD, or temporomandibular joint disorder. Many people have heard of TMJ, which is the same thing. This problem begins when someones bite becomes misaligned, either by injury or just from growth and age. The misalignment is referred to as malocclusion and it can lead to several symptoms that many people may not realize. Some of these issues are facial pain, clicking sounds in the jaw, headaches, grinding the teeth, and neck and jaw pain and stiffness.
Other symptoms include pain, pressure, or sensitivity in the eyes, a buzzing or ringing in the ears, neck, shoulder, and back pain, and even tingling or a numbing feeling in the hands and arms. A specialist in neuromuscular dentistry is who you would go to for diagnosing and treating TMD or TMJ. The appearance of your teeth is very important to both you and the professional staff who will be helping you with your treatment, so a big part of their job is to maintain all aspects of your teeth as much as possible, whether they are functional or cosmetic.
San Diego neuromuscular dentists use computers to help diagnose your problems, so it is very important to choose a specialist with extensive background and training in the procedures. It is a precise practice that cannot be done using casual or traditional methods. Computerized equipment is used to record and analyze electrical activity in the jaw and muscles and the sounds that the jaw joints make.
Some of the different steps that can be taken to align a persons bite include dental work to reposition the teeth, using an orthodontic appliance at night to prevent the grinding of teeth or to retrain the muscles of the jaw, using a TENS unit to keep the jaw muscles relaxed, and others.
Sometimes significant dental work needs to be done to achieve the results that would be desirable. There are many different appliances and procedures that can be used for patients, and it requires extensive professional training and education to be able to determine what the best methods are for each patient. Sometimes surgery is necessary to reposition the jaws cartilage pad, which is supposed to cushion the bones against each other as the jaw moves. A San Diego neuromuscular dentist can help you with any of these problems and many more as well.