What is Neuromuscular Dentistry?
Let me ask you a question, have you ever been to the dentist and had a filling (crown) placed and then afterward the tooth or teeth or the jaw hurt afterwards? It may not be a high filling or an abscessing tooth. Sometimes you can't even tell where it is actually hurting.
In dental school we were taught the teeth were attached to the jaws that were part of the head and neck. There are also muscles, joints, nerves and blood vessels that make up this whole head and neck complex. . .somewhere along the line some of us forgot that.
Neuromuscular dentistry goes beyond not only the hard tissues but also the soft tissues - muscles and nerves. We understand there is a balance between the bodies ability to adapt to imperfection and the stresses placed on its physiologic range of motion and body posture. Thus our office relies on having the ability to objectively measure muscle function and correlate it to a proper jaw posture and its movements in function.
When the harmony of the teeth, the facial muscles, and the temporomandibular joints no longer exists symptoms of what has been identified as TMJ/TMD (Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction) arises. Here are the symptoms we see most often:
- Headaches
- Sensitive and sore teeth
- Facial pain
- Neck and should aches
- Ringing in the ears
- Jaw pain
- Ear congestion
- Clicking/Popping in the joints
- Worn down teeth
- Clenching and/or Bruxing
- Limited opening of the mouth
- Cervical/Neck problems
- Loose teeth
- Tingling in the fingertips
- Forward head posturing