TMJ Disease, An Overview

The temporomandibular joint is a small joint located in front of the ear where the skull and lower jaw unite.  It lets the lower jaw (mandible) move.  If you place your fingers in your ears and open and close your mouth,  you will feel the movement of the joint on both sides.  The joint is a ball and socket joint, just like our hip joint. 

There are many different names that professionals call it, to include:  TMJ symdrome, TMJ disease, TMJ disorder and TMJ inflammation are just four names.  The problem can be acute or chronic, and can include the muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, bones, and connective tissue of the jaw, face and neck, and can affect teeth as well. No matter what your doctor names it, it really is just a catch all phrase. 

There are quite a few different symptoms of TMJ disease to include:

1. Tooth pain

2. Biting or chewing difficulty, pain or discomfort

3. Clicking, popping, or a grinding sound when you open and close your mouth

4. Aching pain in your face

5. Earache

6. Headache

7. Hearing loss and pain

8. Jaw pain or pain when pressing on the area of the joint

9. Reduction in the amount you can open or close your mouth

10. Neck and shoulder pain

These are the main ones that I listed, but I'm sure that some TMJ patients can list some other problems.  If you are one of those patients, please tell me about your symptom so that I may list it here.

I will write more about myself when I publish my next TMJ article.  To begin, when I was eight years old, I fell off a swing set at the park, and fell onto cement. This was around 1973, so TMJ wasn't even born yet.  The hospital never x rayed my head and sent me home with a sling on my arm, and that's about all I remember of that day.  Over the years, my jaw would lock, hurt when I ate or chewed gum or candy.  When I was 16 years old, my parents found a doctor that was just starting out in the TMJ circle.  He made me a hard plastic mouthpiece for my bottom teeth.  I wore it but the only thing I noticed changing were my bottom teeth, they were becoming crooked!! Needless to say, I stopped wearing it.  My symptoms became more severe over the years, pain, discomfort, swelling behind my ear, and terrible shooting pains in my head and neck.  When I was around 23, I moved to Florida and found a nice doctor who started some minor surgical treatments on me.  I will explain those more when I write my article on TMJ surgeries. 

http://TMJ.org/

http://tmjhelp.org/