Dental Conditions
Jaw pain & TMJ disorders
The temporomandibular joint connects your lower jaw to your skull and controls chewing, speaking, and yawning. When it stops working smoothly, the effects reach well beyond the jaw.
Symptoms
Jaw Pain or Tenderness
Arising from muscle tension, dysfunction within the joint itself, or a bite that does not meet evenly.
Clicking, Popping, or Grinding
Usually indicating displacement of the articular disc, or uneven loading across the joint.
Difficulty Opening or Locking
The jaw catches, or will not open fully — from joint pain, muscle guarding, or the disc obstructing movement.
Headaches & Ear Symptoms
Frequently misattributed. The muscles involved connect to the temples, and the joint sits directly against the ear, so TMJ dysfunction commonly presents as headache or earache with no ear pathology at all.
What causes it
TMJ disorders rarely have a single cause. Grinding and clenching load the joint heavily and are among the most common contributors. So is a bite that distributes force unevenly, trauma to the jaw, arthritis affecting the joint, and sustained muscular tension from stress.
Because the causes overlap, treatment usually addresses several at once rather than searching for one culprit.
Treatment is usually conservative and usually works
The great majority of TMJ problems respond to conservative management: a properly designed splint or night guard, targeted exercises, soft diet through flare-ups, heat, and addressing grinding.
Bite adjustment helps where occlusion is genuinely a factor. Surgery is very rarely required and should never be the first suggestion.
What we will not do is start irreversible treatment — extensive crown work or orthodontics — on a joint that has not been properly assessed first.
Concerned about your symptoms?
Book a TMJ assessment. Call (905) 479-7777.