What Is TMJ?

The term TMJ refers to the temporomandibular joint. Your temporomandibular joints are your jaw joints located in front of your ears on either side of your face. So, asking the question, “What is TMJ?” is like asking, “What is knee?” but the term has become so familiar that even healthcare providers use it instead of clinical terms such as temporomandibular joint disorder and TMD.

When they function normally, your TMJs enable you to open and close your mouth in a pain-free, fluid motion and allow you to chew, talk, and yawn comfortably. Just like all the other joint systems in your body, your jaw joints are moved by muscles and stabilized by ligaments. And, like any other joint, pain and stiffness can occur when there are problems in their muscles and ligaments.

TMJ Is An Orthopedic Problem

A TMJ problem is orthopedic in nature. It can involve your jaw muscles, tendons, ligaments, and even your jaw joints themselves. Under the broad heading of what are TMJ disorders, diagnoses can include the orthopedic categories you’re probably already familiar with:

Tendonitis
Muscle strains, soreness, spasm, tightness, or inflammation
Ligament sprains & tears
Joint Instability
Swollen, joints, inflamed joints, or both
Arthritis

Viewed this way, it should not be surprising that TMJ disorders are accompanied by jaw and face pain, limited jaw motion (difficulty opening your mouth), and joint noises.

Do You Have Any Of These Common TMD/TMJ Symptoms?

Pain, soreness, or tightness in your jaw muscles
Pain directly in front of the ear over your jaw joints
Jaw pain when you eat or whenever you move your jaw
Limited jaw motion, often called lockjaw
A feeling that your jaw is out of whack or that your bite has changed
Clicking, popping, or gravelly sounds coming from your jaw joints
Sore teeth when you wake up in the morning
Headaches in your temples

Are you experiencing any of these less common symptoms?

Unexplained ear pain
Ringing in your ears (tinnitus)
Clogged ears or a feeling of pressure
Persistent neck pain, particularly when you get up in the morning
Tooth pain that is hard to diagnose or doesn’t respond to treatment
Altered sensations in your face and jaw

If you have any combination of the above symptoms, we know what you’re going through. If you’ve been struggling to find answers and solutions, we invite you to make an appointment at one of our convenient offices in the New York City metro area. The team at New York TMJ & Orofacial Pain is led by board-certified Orofacial Pain specialists, some of the few in the region.

We have been dedicated to helping people with TMJ problems get better for over three decades. To make an appointment, call 888-560-6674 or form , and we’ll get right back to you.

What Is TMJ? – The Causes

Most TMJ symptoms are the result of tired, tight, injured, or sore jaw muscles, inflamed tendons, or compromised ligaments, cartilage, and joint structures, all of which define a type of orthopedic injury. If you’ve ever had an injury from overdoing it in sports or fitness, you can think of your TMJ symptoms as a similar orthopedic problem. While TMJ can be scary, most patients feel much better when they understand that their symptoms are orthopedic in nature.

The 6 Most Common Causes Of TMJ:

A single identifiable trauma such as an accident
Ongoing micro-traumas such as bruxism and jaw over-use behaviors
Underlying medical conditions such as arthritis, an autoimmune disorder, or sleep apnea
Life’s stressors, tension, and anxiety
Persistent neck problems
A bad bite and/or a jaw misalignment

If you suffer from TMJ symptoms and cannot identify a single traumatic event that could have cased them, it is likely due to one or more of the above risk factors and jaw over-use behaviors. Millions of people around the world do over-use their jaws but don’t end up with TMJ – millions more suffer from TMJ pain and symptoms as a result:

Risk Factors That Can Cause TMJ

Clenching or grinding your teeth during the day
Clenching or grinding your teeth while asleep
Keeping your teeth in contact during the day
Chewing gum
Biting your nails or cuticles
Biting on pens, straws, or other plastic items
Biting your lips or cheeks
Chewing ice
Frequent and excessive yawning
Holding objects between your teeth
Leaning your chin into your hands

At New York TMJ and Orofacial Pain, we spend the time to uncover the risk factors that lead to TMJ problems and have many ways to help you reduce or eliminate them, whether you have moderate or severe TMJ. Many patients come to us after trying everything and are still suffering; some have even been told their symptoms are “all in their heads”. Our philosophy of care, on the other hand, combines empathy and compassion with experience and expertise.

Make an appointment for a consultation at one of our three convenient offices in the NYC metro area by calling 888-560-6674 or complete this quick form , and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Recognizing The Diagnosis Of A TMJ Disorder

Healthcare providers have long overlooked the temporomandibular joint and jaw muscles as the source of their patients’ persistent face, teeth, ear, and sinus pain. Therefore, patients are frequently misdiagnosed. As a result, countless people are prescribed medications or pursue medical and dental treatment or surgery that does not solve their problems.

In 2020, after decades of efforts by practitioners who were focused on TMJ disorders in their practices, the National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards designated Orofacial Pain as a specialty. Orofacial Pain is the area of dentistry that encompasses disorders of the jaw, mouth, face, and neck. In the years to come, this development will make it easier for patients to get their TMJ diagnosed correctly and successfully treated.

For the moment, however, there are only a few board-certified Orofacial Pain specialists in the New York area, and we are proud that two of them lead our staff at New York TMJ & Orofacial Pain! (Learn more about our practice here.)

How TMJ Is Diagnosed At New York TMJ & Orofacial Pain

When you arrive for your first visit, we sit down with you and have what we refer to as a diagnostic conversation. Our goal is to understand your symptoms and, most importantly, get to know you as an individual and discover what has recently shaped and impacted your life.

During this first visit, we also review your relevant medical and dental history and examine whether your symptoms are due to tissue injury in your TMJs, jaw and/or neck muscles, or other oral tissues. To complete our assessment, we may need to obtain x-rays or CT scans of your jaws in our office or refer you for additional imaging or medical consultations and tests.

If we make a diagnosis during your first visit, we can start the treatment process immediately and get you on the road to healing and feeling better. Our goal is for you to leave our office with a sense of confidence that you are in good hands.

What Is TMJ & Why Does It Cause So Many Problems?

TMJ problems can disrupt your life with pain and suffering, and severe TMJ can persist for years. Way too often, patients are forced to figure out what is wrong on their own, which is evidenced by the fact that the question, “What is TMJ?” is entered into Google over 27,000 times each month in the US alone.

What Happens Once TMJ Is Diagnosed

Once your TMJ is diagnosed, we have treatment options to help you get better, and we will choose what’s most likely to work for you, depending on what caused your problem. But, there is something that sets TMJ treatment apart from most other types of dental treatment:

You must be an active participant to ensure your successful TMJ recovery.

Because fatigue in your temporomandibular joints and jaw muscles may result from years of ongoing over-use behaviors such as teeth clenching or grinding, or biting your nails, it’s critical that they stop. To get your TMJ problems under control, you will have to do some of the work. At the same time, we will provide treatment, which can include oral appliances, medications, jaw exercises, joint and muscle injections, or Botox.

Whether you’ve suffered from TMJ problems for years or just recently noticed that your jaw just “doesn’t feel right,” we invite you to make an appointment at one of our offices in the New York City metropolitan area. We understand your symptoms, have compassion for what you’ve been going through and will get you on the path to feeling better.

At New York TMJ and Orofacial Pain, our team is led by board-certified Orofacial Pain specialists who have successfully treated TMJ patients for decades. We have extensive training and experience that enables us to diagnose TMJ accurately. Whether you suffer from mild symptoms or severe TMJ, we have many ways to help you heal.

Call us at 888-560-6674 to make an appointment at the office near you, or complete this quick form , and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Review

What Is TMJ? When asked, “What Is TMJ?” most people would answer, “It’s a jaw problem.” But, the acronym TMJ actually refers to your temporomandibular joints, which are your jaw joints.

How is TMJ diagnosed?

At New York TMJ & Orofacial Pain, we use a two-fold approach to diagnose TMJ. In order for TMJ to be correctly diagnosed and treated, we want to understand who you are as a person and find out what’s going on in your life. At your first visit, we will sit down and just talk with you. We’ll listen carefully to how you describe your symptoms and determine whether you have moderate or severe TMJ. At the same visit, we will perform an examination and take x-rays or refer you for more tests, if necessary.

What is TMJ treatment like?

We have many different treatment methods to reduce the symptoms of TMJ, such as oral appliances, medications, jaw exercises, joint, muscle injections, and Botox, to name a few. If your jaw problem results from over-use behaviors such as teeth clenching and grinding, nail-biting, gum chewing, etc., we will help you reduce or eliminate them using relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, and meditation.

Can someone recover from severe TMJ?

Some people suffer from such severe TMJ symptoms that they feel like it’s taken over their lives. To make matters worse, many healthcare providers unfamiliar with temporomandibular joint disorders often prescribe medications, treatment, or surgery that do not solve the problem. TMJ and Orofacial Pain specialists, on the other hand, know how to help people who suffer from what is a severe TMJ problem heal and get better.

If you are suffering from TMJ and do not live in the NYC metro area, you can find a specialist in your area here. Look for the designation, Diplomate.