TMJ Disorders

Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Dysfunction and Myofascial Pain Syndrome

Temporo Mandibular Dysfunction is a group of disorders that typically result from internal derangement of anatomy inside your Temporo-Mandibular Joint (TMJ). Common symptoms include:pain in the area just in front of the ear, difficulty in opening mouth, clicking, popping and grinding noises while trying to open mouth and chewing, locking of the jaw in open or closed position, change of occlusion or bite, pain in associated chewing muscles, headaches and many others.

Some of those symptoms are also common to Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS) a disorder affecting primarily muscles of chewing and head and neck region. Your surgeon will need to distinguish between the two disorders in order to provide you with appropriate treatment plan.

Approximately 90% of TMD disorders will significantly improve without surgical intervention. However, there are numerous things that a patient can do in order to speed up their recovery. Outline below is our preferred approach to treatment of a TMD patient with acute symptoms.

As noted earlier, most TMD patients will experience a significant improvement, however some will require additional therapeutic and possible surgical interventions, such as Arthrocentesis (joint washout), Arthroscopy (joint washout under direct vision), or a variety of open joint procedures designed to improve internal anatomy of the deranged and painful joint. Such advanced techniques will be discussed as appropriate on individual basis.

Please refer to TMJ Home Care for instructions.