TMJ

Many times patients will come to me with a complaint of TMJ pain.  The truth is that most often times the pain is not directly related to the joint but rather the muscles surrounding the joint, sometimes described as myo-facial pain dysfunction (MFPD).   Most commonly this pain is related to instability in the bite.  The good news is that most times this is treatable either with appliance therapy,  bite adjustments, orthodontics or restorative procedures.  One of the tools I frequently use is called the T-Scan.  The T-Scan is a pressure sensitive bite recorder.  It records your bite in real time and then allows us to slow it down for review on a computer to show areas that may either be hitting too hard or prematurely.  Both of these can cause your jaw muscles to spasm, leading to MFPD.