{"id":69,"date":"2008-12-08T18:29:56","date_gmt":"2008-12-09T00:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=69"},"modified":"2008-12-08T18:29:56","modified_gmt":"2008-12-09T00:29:56","slug":"tmj-something-to-chew-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2008\/12\/08\/tmj-something-to-chew-on\/","title":{"rendered":"TMJ: Something to chew on…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Do you wake up in the mornings with headaches, sore teeth or a sore jaw?\u00a0 Neck and shoulder pain?<\/p>\n

If so, you may be clenching and grinding your teeth at night while you are asleep.\u00a0 It is estimated that over 95% of people experience this uncontrollable habit at some point in their lives.\u00a0 Teeth grinding may be caused by stress, or sleep disorders, and abnormal bite, crooked or missing teeth.<\/p>\n

These habits can escalate into serious pain and problems of the temporomandibular joint, or the TMJ, which joins the lower jaw to the skull. TMj disorders can mimic migraine headaches, earaches, sinus infections and tooth abscesses.\u00a0 It can cause dizziness, ringing in the ears and muscle pain that radiates down the neck and shoulders.
\n\"\"<\/a>A clenched jaw can exert up to 300 pounds of pressure, which can wear teeth down, causing painful cracks.\u00a0 Teeth can become very sensitive to cold temperatures.\u00a0 Over time, arthritis, inflammation and degenerative joint changes can occur.\u00a0 The disc in the joint can shift and make clicking or popping sounds.\u00a0 It can also \u201clock\u201d out of place.<\/p>\n

Headaches, jaw and muscle pain can seriously disrupt the quality of one\u2019s life.\u00a0 Often time\u2019s people are treated with anti-depressants or prescription pain medicine only to mask or place a band aid over the underlying condition.<\/p>\n

Recognizing that stress and chronic pain is hard to eliminate from our lives, over the past several years I have intensified my research into the proper diagnosis and treatment of these conditions.<\/p>\n

Conservative pain-free treatment options are available and have the potential to eliminate the painful symptoms linked with tooth clenching and grinding.\u00a0 First, an accurate disorder must be diagnosed by a qualified dentist extensively trained in the jaw joints, bite problems, and the musculature associated with the face, head, and neck.\u00a0 Frequently, diagnostic imaging such as MRI and CT Scans are required to make an accurate diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Once a diagnosis has been made, a treatment plan can be developed based on each individual\u2019s condition and needs.\u00a0 And just like any other problem, if left untreated it will only get worse.<\/p>\n

If headaches, face, or jaw pain are disrupting the quality of your life or you think you may be clenching or grinding your teeth, why not consider a proper examination rather than living with the pain?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you wake up in the mornings with headaches, sore teeth or a sore jaw?\u00a0 Neck and shoulder pain? If so, you may be clenching and grinding your teeth at night while you are asleep.\u00a0 It is estimated that over 95% of people experience this uncontrollable habit at some point in their lives.\u00a0 Teeth grinding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[26640,69,70,68,67,66],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-17","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}