Royal Oak and Birmingham, MI

Jaw pain can be difficult to treat. Identifying the cause of the pain can be even more difficult. If you’re living with jaw pain, you also may be suffering from headaches, ringing in the ears or facial swelling. Jaw pain also can be present in combination with other symptoms, such as hearing a popping or clicking sound when your jaws open and close. Whether your pain is a dull steady throb, an overall tenderness or an occasional sharp and stabbing pain, discomfort in the jaws can disrupt your day-to-day life. That is why it is important to identify the cause so that proper treatment can be provided. Today on the blog, your Royal Oak neuromuscular dentist looks at jaw pain and some of the common causes.

6 Causes of jaw pain

1. Arthritis: This chronic condition wreaks havoc on the bones, tissues and ligaments that surround your joints – your jaw joints included. Arthritis in the jaw usually leads to pain that can become chronic. In order to treat arthritis in the temporomandibular joint, you must first be diagnosed, which entails an assessment and often X-rays, which should be reviewed by a medical practitioner who understands the mechanics of the jaw and orofacial system.
2. Sinus issues: Whether it’s caused by trauma, inflammation from sinus infections or allergies, a buildup of sinus pressure can cause pain in the jaw. This pain can be sudden or reoccurring.  Sinusitis possibly can be treated with over-the-counter medicines but a chronic sinus condition requires treatment from a qualified medical professional.
3. Injury or trauma: It’s important that if you sustained an injury due to a blow or impact to the jaw or face, you need to seek medical attention and have your jaw joints assessed. This will help ensure that your overall health and quality of living will not be affected in any way.
4. Bruxism: The clinical term for teeth grinding or clenching, bruxism often occurs due to anger or stress. While some people grind their teeth during the day it is more common at night while asleep, meaning the vast majority of people with bruxism never realize they are engaging in this habit. However, this grinding or clenching can wear down teeth and also throw off the alignment of the jaws, leading to jaw pain. You can resist your likelihood to grind your teeth by reducing your stress through meditation, regular exercise and other lifestyle changes.
5. An underlying dental problem: It is not unheard of for conditions such as gum disease, cavities, infected teeth, abscessed teeth, and tooth decay to cause jaw pain. These conditions all can affect the jaw directly while impacting your oral health.
6. Temporomandibular joint disorder: More commonly referred to as TMJ disorder, this condition occurs when the temporomandibular joint, which connects the jaw to the skull on either side of the head, enters a state of dysfunction. As the temporomandibular joint controls the ability of the jaws to open and close, it plays a crucial role in your ability to speak and chew. The symptoms of TMJ disorder can vary significantly from case to case but one of the most common symptoms is—you guessed it—jaw pain.

Identifying and treating jaw pain in Royal Oak and Birmingham in Michigan

You do not have to continue living with jaw pain. Seek the care of a neuromuscular dentist to resolve this issue. Neuromuscular dentistry is an advanced specialization of dental science that focuses on the alignment of the bite as well as the jaws. This training makes a neuromuscular dentist the ideal choice to diagnose and treat cases of jaw pain. Dr. Nancy Hartrick is proud to offer her services in the specialty of neuromuscular dentistry. To schedule an appointment, call our office in Royal Oak at (248) 549-0950.

Royal Oak and Birmingham, MI

Have you ever experienced a persistent ringing in the ears? What about chronic headaches, especially first thing in the morning, that respond poorly to even powerful pain relief medication? Maybe you hear clicking or popping sounds when your jaws open and close? Well, all of these seemingly separate issues can stem from the same cause – temporomandibular joint disorder. More commonly known as TMJ disorder, this is a serious ailment that requires treatment from a qualified medical professional … such as a neuromuscular dentist. In fact, a neuromuscular dentist is the best-qualified medical professional to provide both a proper diagnosis and effective treatment for TMJ disorder. Today on the blog, let’s learn more about neuromuscular dentistry and its importance.

What is neuromuscular dentistry?

Neuromuscular dentistry focuses on the alignment of the bite and jaw. It seeks to maintain the ideal alignment or, when issues occur, restore that alignment. Neuromuscular dentistry is not taught as part of the curriculum during dental school. Interested practitioners must pursue it on a post-graduate level, which involves intensive education and rigorous training.

A trained, experienced neuromuscular dentistry uses their wealth of knowledge to find or restore the ideal alignment and optimal resting position for your jaw. Once the correct alignment has been found, this will remove any other symptoms or oral health issues that developed due to the misalignment–such as a case of TMJ disorder.

How does a neuromuscular dentist identify and treat TMJ disorder?

By focusing on the root cause of this disorder – in other words, whatever is causing the temporomandibular joint to malfunction. This is a small, round joint that connects the jaw to the skull on either side of the head. The temporomandibular joint controls, among other things, the ability of the jaws to open and close.

If someone is experiencing symptoms of TMJ disorder, a neuromuscular dentist determines if the disorder actually is present. This diagnosis is made by combining their own education and training with state-of-the-art technology. If TMJ disorder is detected, a neuromuscular dentist provides treatment, usually through a course of oral appliance therapy. This entails wearing a customized oral appliance that repositions the jaws into their preferred alignment, alleviating whatever is leading the temporomandibular joint to malfunction.

When should I see a neuromuscular dentist?

Patients with severe or untreated TMJ disorder may experience debilitating levels of pain, or other symptoms that negatively affect appetite, sleep patterns, stress and create other issues that impede your daily life. You do not have to live with these problems. Instead, schedule a consultation with a trained neuromuscular dentist today.

TMJ disorder will not go away on its own. Left untreated or undiagnosed, the effects of this ailment will continue to worsen. Vertigo, pinched nerves, misaligned vertebrae or numbness in the extremities all could develop as consequences of a case of severe or long-standing TMJ disorder.

Dr. Nancy Hartrick is proud to offer neuromuscular dentistry services to her patients in Royal Oak, Birmingham and the surrounding areas of Michigan. Just call the office of Hartrick Dentistry at (248) 549-0950 to make your appointment.

Royal Oak and Birmingham, MI

Are you familiar with temporomandibular joint disorder? Also commonly referred to as TMJ disorder, this occurs when there’s some sort of dysfunction with your temporomandibular joint, which connects your jaw to your skull on either side of your head. Living with this disorder often leads to chronic pain. It also can affect the alignment of your bite and jaws, but did you know that untreated TMJ disorder also can impact your sleep? Today on the blog, we explore how TMJ disorder can improve the quality of your sleep as well as your overall health.

Living with untreated TMJ disorder can cause systemic problems

The symptoms of TMJ disorder can cause issues throughout your body. For example, pain emanating from your jaws can start to radiate to other areas, including the head, face, neck, and shoulders. This pain can make it difficult to relax and fall asleep, as certain sleeping positions affect the alignment of the head and neck and can exacerbate existing pain from your TMJ disorder. If you sleep on your stomach or your side, this may be restful but is going to exacerbate your condition, making all your symptoms worsen with time.

Try sleeping on your back if you have TMJ disorder

There are several benefits to sleeping in this position to help manage your disorder. Sleeping on your back exerts less pressure on the jaw joints, and more support for your head, neck, and shoulders. It also reduces the likelihood you’ll grind your teeth or clench your jaw while asleep. If sleeping on your back isn’t natural or comfortable, try placing a small pillow under the arch of your back. A good mattress topper might be a smart addition as well; many of these toppers adjust to the contours of your body and help you adjust to sleeping on your back.

Treating TMJ disorder in Royal Oak and Birmingham in Michigan

TMJ disorder is one of the greatest diagnostic challenges in medical science because the symptoms can vary so widely from person to person. In truth, no two cases of TMJ disorder are the same. Your best resource for relief for TMJ disorder is a practitioner with training and experience in neuromuscular dentistry, a specialized area of dental science that focuses on the alignment of the bite and jaw. Dr. Nancy Hartrick is proud to offer neuromuscular dentistry services to her patients at Hartrick Dentistry. If you or someone you love has TMJ disorder or is showing signs of this ailment, she can help through a course of oral appliance therapy, which entails wearing a customized mouthpiece to bring forward the lower jaw and restore the ideal alignment of the jaws—alleviating the stress on the temporomandibular joint that is causing the dysfunction.

Seek help for your TMJ disorder in Royal Oak and Birmingham in Michigan

Stop living with the pain, the lost sleep and all the other consequences that come from untreated TMJ disorder. Treatment through neuromuscular dentistry can provide the lasting relief and quality sleep that you need. Make your appointment at Hartrick Dentistry today by calling (248) 549-0950.

Royal Oak and Birmingham, MI

If you have temporomandibular joint disorder, this condition can harm the alignment of your bite and/or jaws. TMJ disorder also often causes significant pain, sometimes serious enough to be debilitating. Seeking the care of a qualified medical professional is crucial. However, finding the right practitioner to identify and treat a case of TMJ disorder can be just as difficult as it is to properly diagnose TMJ disorder. Today on the blog, we take a look at how your dentist treats TMJ disorder.

The importance of training

As mentioned, it is crucial to find a dentist who has the knowledge and training to correctly diagnose a case of TMJ disorder. This is because TMJ disorder often never gets diagnosed or is misdiagnosed. For example, the ailment often provokes headaches that occur regularly enough and with such severity that they can be misidentified as migraines. A dentist who wants to treat TMJ disorder needs to have training in neuromuscular dentistry, which focuses on the entire system of hard and soft tissue that resides in the mouth—emphasizing the alignment of the bite and jaws.

What signs of TMJ disorder should I watch for?

Any of the following issues can be evidence that you currently are suffering from this condition:  

• A persistent ringing in the ears
• Migraine headaches that do not respond fully to standard treatments for migraines
• Jaw pain
• Tooth pain that seems to migrate to different locations in the mouth
• Hearing a popping or clicking sound when your jaws open and close
• Pain in your neck and back, especially if treatment from your general physician or chiropractor has failed to provide lasting relief

The importance of proper treatment

If you suffer from TMJ disorder, you cannot merely “tough it out” or hope that the condition goes away. This is actually the worst decision you can make, as this just means the ailment will continue to worsen as time passes. In fact, failure to seek diagnosis and treatment only will exacerbate a case of TMJ. While the symptoms of this disorder can vary greatly from person to person, TMJ frequently causes pain—often of chronic and severe varieties, bad enough to impede your ability to function on a daily basis and complete regular tasks. Eventually, TMJ will continue to create problems throughout your body. The dysfunction in the temporomandibular joint will spread from the jaw joints to the adjacent musculature, blood vessels, and nerves, eventually impacting the face, neck, and even the spine.

Long-term consequences of untreated TMJ disorder may include:

• Pinched nerves
• Misaligned cervical vertebrae
• Numbness or tingling in extremities

Diagnosis and treatment of TMJ disorder in Royal Oak and Birmingham in Michigan

TMJ disorder is a serious medical condition that only will be resolved by treatment from a qualified medical professional like Dr. Hartrick. Stop living with the pain and other issues that can stem from a case of untreated TMJ disorder. Unfortunately, many people with TMJ disorder never receive a proper diagnosis. That does not have to be your fate. Instead, if you are experiencing symptoms of TMJ disorder, make your appointment at Hartrick Dentistry today by calling (248) 549-0950.

Royal Oak and Birmingham, MI

Do you know where your temporomandibular joint is? This is a small round joint that connects your jaw to your skull on either side of the head. That joint may be small but if it enters a state of dysfunction it can cause some big problems, up to and including chronic pain. TMJ disorder represents a diagnostic challenge for medical professionals, so you can imagine the confusion it can cause from the people suffering from the condition. That’s why Hartrick Dentistry compiled this list of answers to some of the questions we receive most frequently about TMJ disorder from people just like you.

What causes TMJ disorder?

Frequently reported causes of TMJ disorder include:

• An injury—usually sustained to the jaw, the head, the neck, or the temporomandibular joint itself;
• Bruxism, which is the clinical term for teeth grinding or clenching;
• Arthritis, emanating from the temporomandibular joint;
• Dislocating the disc between the ball and socket of the temporomandibular joint; and
• Stress, which causes you to tighten the muscles of your face and jaw or clench your teeth.

What are the symptoms of TMJ disorder?

The exact symptoms of TMJ disorder can vary widely but patients with this ailment regularly report any combination of the following:

• Pain in the face, teeth, mouth, neck, shoulders or jaw
• A clicking or popping sound when the jaws open and close
• Experiencing a locked jaw or limited range of motion in the jaws
• Having problems chewing
• Malocclusion, which also is known as a misaligned bite
• Ringing, stuffiness, or congestion in the ears

Patients with TMJ disorder often experience frequent and painful headaches, which may be misdiagnosed as migraines. These headaches may feel like migraines or be of migraine-like intensity, but they do not respond as well to normal migraine treatments. If you have been diagnosed with migraines but treatment has not provided relief, then TMJ disorder could be the root cause of your headaches.

How does a dentist treat TMJ disorder?

Dr. Nancy Hartrick is trained in neuromuscular dentistry, a specialization of the dental field that only is taught on a post-graduate level following the completion of normal dental school. This training focuses on finding and restoring the ideal alignment of the bite and jaw. Typically, Hartrick Dentistry can treat TMJ disorder through oral appliance therapy. Using impressions of your mouth as a guide, we have an orthotic mouthpiece fabricated. When worn, the oral appliance serves as a mandibular advancement device. It applies gentle forward pressure, guiding your jaws into their preferred alignment and resolving the stress being placed on the temporomandibular joint. Once the TMJ has been treated, any symptoms you are experiencing—including pain—also will be resolved.

TMJ Treatment in Royal Oak ad Birmingham in Michigan

Make no mistake: if you or someone you love has TMJ disorder, seeing a trained medical professional like Dr. Hartrick is the only way to obtain lasting relief. Waiting to see if the problem just will go away on its own only encourages the development of greater problems related to your TMJ disorder, such as pain in the neck and back or numbness in extremities. Schedule an appointment at our office in Royal Oak by calling (248) 549-0950.

Royal Oak and Birmingham, MI

Suffering from temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ/TMD) can be debilitating and frustrating. Ranging from toothaches to daily headaches and ringing ears, the manifestations of TMJ disorder are unending. Additionally, TMJ disorder can manifest into wide-spread pain throughout the face, head, and neck. In today’s blog post, our Royal Oak TMJ dentist, Dr. Nancy Hartrick, uncovers one of the less-discussed effects of TMJ disorder, explains how the condition distorts the face, and how she can help.

How does TMJ disorder sneak its way into your facial appearance?

It all begins with the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), the joint between the jawbone and the skull at the sides of your head. When this joint is overstressed, it leads to a chain reaction affecting the surrounding muscles and soft tissues. If TMJ disorder is not properly dealt with it will not only affect the jaw but pain branches out to various parts of the face, head, and even the spine.

What are some ways TMJ disorder can alter your appearance?

From the painful feelings to the facial changes, every patient who has endured TMJ can be subjected to different results. But our Birmingham area TMJ dentist offers a short list of the possible effects if you choose to neglect TMJ.

• Tooth wear: As the teeth grind against each other due to an uneven bite, teeth can wear down, making the face slant when the mouth is closed. It may even turn out to be visually prominent and cause a jaw mismatch that contributes to an improper bite.
• Joint displacement: In very bad cases, the entire jaw becomes displaced due to the joint discs breaking down. Unfortunately, this may lead to asymmetrical jaw movement when chewing or when opening and closing the mouth and affecting the facial muscles.
• Bone irregularity: It should be noted that TMJ disorder leads to unequal elongation of the lower jaw and therefore if one side of the jawbone is shorter, it will show on the face. The condition is usually blamed on wear and tear on the condyle, the rounded part of the jaw that articulates with the skull.
• Overdeveloped muscles: TMJ disorder can make your jaw go out of whack, and to make up for the misfire, the muscles in your jaw will overwork. It may result in an increase in the size of the jaw muscles on the favored side as compared to the other, thus leading to facial changes.
• Spinal imbalance: The effects of the TMJ disorder are not limited to the jaw. Your neck, shoulders, and spine may also be affected as the condition goes untreated. Unfortunately, TMJ pain may lead to poor posture, which causes neck and back pain. Poor posture is evident by looking at someone. You may notice that their back is hunched over or they carry their head in a more forward position that looks irregular.

TMJ Dentist in Royal Oak and Birmingham, Michigan

Naturally, facial changes can be difficult manage without a proper diagnosis. However, it’s important to note that there is a TMJ dentist in Royal Oak, Dr. Nancy Hartrick, who is a caring specialist focusing on comprehensive TMJ treatment solutions. Our goal is to help you achieve a harmonious bite and a bite that is comfortable, without TMJ symptoms. When we combine a detailed assessment with a tailored approach to your TMJ condition, we can develop a treatment plan to help you overcome the disorder and feel confident again. For more information or to make an appointment to restore your smile’s comfort and confidence call Hartrick Dentistry at (248) 549-0950 today.