Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, commonly known as “TMD,” can negatively impact your life and make it difficult to even get through your daily routine. When you’re living with symptoms of your temporomandibular joint, or “TMJ,” you might not even realize it—dismissing your pain as “normal” or attributing it to a different body part.
Ignoring or mislabeling your symptoms can be dangerous to your oral health because you need to treat your TMJ if you want to protect your smile. So how can you distinguish between TMJ warning signs and other medical conditions?
First, you need to watch for the following symptoms:
- Sounds or sensations of clicking, grinding, or popping in your jaw
- Frequent headaches or migraines, especially upon waking
- Visible wear and tear on your teeth, including broken teeth and a worn-down appearance
- Ringing in your ears
- Constant pain in your jaw, especially when you yawn, speak, or try to chew
Particularly if you experience multiple of these warning signs together, you likely have TMJ.
The next thing to do is to contact your Fairfax dentist and schedule a thorough examination. Sometimes, only a dental professional can tell for sure whether you’re experiencing TMJ.
If we confirm your diagnosis, then we can provide TMJ treatment in Fairfax, VA to mitigate your pain and minimize your symptoms. Custom mouthguards are usually one of the first treatments we will try for TMJ, but we may also choose to place dental restorations such as crowns or bridges to stabilize your bite.
