My Jaw Hurts: This Needs To End!
Your jaw and the muscles that make it work comprise one complex system. Jaw muscles produce powerful forces that crush and grind food to start the digestive process. When compared to other muscles in the body, these workhorses may generate the most force, ounce for ounce.
You can probably bite down and apply 175 pounds of brute force on your teeth! So, when you’re wondering “Why my jaw hurts,” this may be part of the explanation.
By each ear, the jaw joint (TMJ) joins the lower jaw to your skull with a cartilage pad and small ligaments. When you chew, yawn, or talk, these joints move in multiple directions. When everything functions as it should, pain isn’t part of the equation. TMJ Blog and TMD Blogging Online with us.
Sometimes the jaw joint experiences uncommon stress, and that’s when problems begin to develop. If you ever wake up in the morning with a sore jaw or headache, odds are your jaw hasn’t been resting as you have. Over 30 million people in the U.S. suffer from bruxism, or night-time teeth grinding. During the night, your brain can override normal bite force and generate 5 times more force than occurs during the day! This abnormal activity strains muscles from the neck to the top of the temples. It also compresses the jaw joints and can cause inflammation in the joints.
A Powerhouse System
To understand the strain on these muscles, clench your muscles.
Put your fingers on the muscle in front of the jaw and run them down to the lower jaw? Feel that bulge? Now clench and unclench as you rub the temples.
These long, skinny muscle fibers reach to the top of your head. When these major muscles, along with a bunch of small ones, undergo strain, then jaw pain begins. This discomfort radiates into many areas of the head, and there’s a big difference between the source of pain and the site of pain.
To top it off, the jaw joints can become pain centers of their own. A delicate cartilage disk cushions the lower jaw bone against the skull. Unusual forces, arthritic changes, trauma, or an uneven bite can cause the joints to become imbalanced and irritated.
Maybe you’ve had a foul knee, sore hip, or tender knuckles. The same problem can develop in the TMJ on the left, right, or both sides. Research even suggests that migraine sufferers can experience more severe TMD problems, and TMD may even intensify migraines. This double curse makes life especially miserable for chronic migraine patients.
So How Do I Stop Jaw Pain?
If you’re tormented by headaches or jaw pain, make sure you’ve had an evaluation with your dentist. A few easy tests and clinical clues provide insight to what’s making “my jaw hurt.”
While it’s a subject for another day, the possibility of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) shouldn’t be overlooked. A well-designed study in 2009 showed one in four OSA patients conjointly grind their teeth. OSA is a serious sleep disorder that’s responsible for a long list of health problems. The title of this article at NCBI.nlm – Prevalence of temporomandibular disorders in obstructive sleep apnea patients referred for oral appliance therapy.
In fact, 90% of people who die in their sleep have untreated OSA!
Bruxism could be the first clue that you’re stressing your body and a sleep study is in order. Jaw Pain Blogging online with us at DentalChat.
Sometimes it takes time to schedule a sleep study. A simple, inexpensive nightguard appliance can serve as a temporary measure to protect your jaw, teeth, and relieve some of the jaw pain or headaches. You may decide to ultimately invest in a custom nightguard, made just for you. There’s also a chance that treating a sleep disorder may take care of your pain while protecting your general health. Jaw Pain Question ask dentists or Dental Pain Chat at DentalChat. Post your Jaw Pain Question here.
Bottom Line to “Why My Jaw Hurts!”
Jaw pain or headaches seriously have an effect on your ability to enjoy life. In some cases, they may indicate a serious health disorder like sleep apnea. A game plan could include:
- Make an appointment with your dentist to discuss your concerns, and consider a sleep study with a certified sleep center.
- Order a temporary nightguard immediately to generate short-term relief. Here’s a simple one that will work for most people.
- If you’re having pain, try applying ice to the joint and muscles on the side of your face in front of the ears. Move the ice to your temples. If you find the pain temporarily drops by half or more, you’re probably dealing with TMD. If you still have pain, there are many other types of TMD that could be causing discomfort and you should follow-up with your dentist.
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Dental Laser, Periodontal Gum Laser Therapy to treat Gum Disease
- Dental Laser, Periodontal Gum Laser Therapy to treat Gum Disease:
We are at DentalChat looking to better inform our viewers and site users more dental information. We will be Dental Laser Chat Online & Dentist Laser Chatting about benefits in this article. This Dental Blog will discuss Dental Laser Treatment. Dental Lasers are used by dentists in many different ways – with Periodontal Gum Laser Therapy for treatment of gum inflammation being one of them. Basically, the dental laser is used to remove inflamed gum tissue from around the tooth root and coronal portion / around the teeth where the inflammation is.
In the 1990s, medical CO2 and Nd:YAG lasers units with the first pulsed Nd:YAG laser designed specifically for the dental care market place was released – in the last decade, newer forms of dental lasers have come into the dental market place. Dental Laser companies are pushing great new technology innovation the last decade.
Dentist Laser Chat – One of the big benefits using Dental Laser Surgery is not having to use so much anesthesia and usually less pain post-op. for Dentist One of the main advantages of using dental laser therapy for treating some forms of gum disease is that it requires less anesthesia and generally, if less invasive than having to go in and do a incision to access the inflammation. Generally, because of this – the recovery time can be less than with regular gum surgery. Laser gum surgery should only be performed with dentists that have the right training for it – as each device has various wavelengths and user criteria to follow.
Gum Disease Chat – Crown Lengthening Procedure Discussion
Gum Disease Chat and more – here with us @ DentalChat.com. Gum disease comes in various degrees, with peridontitus being one of the worst type or severe form of gum disease. We are looking for more dental content on here, to help our users gain more dental information.
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Local Emergency Dental Chatting Online & Local Emergency Dentists Chat online with us – We are looking to discuss various dental subjects involving dental care. For this blog, want to discuss crown lengthening procedure.
Why is a Crown Lengthening procedure done – for one, there caries, tooth malformation, attrition, excessive tooth reduction, erosion, genetic variations and many times because of tooth fracture below the gum line. So, if a dentist wants to place a crown, and a lot of the tooth is broken or not visible easily because it is broken around the gum line. The dentist will remove part of the gum to show more of the tooth, so a good crown impression can be done – so, the crown will be placed on the tooth easily and with a good fit.
Crown Lengthening is done by dentists when more area is needed for placement of a dental crown. Now a days, with advance dental technology – lasers are sometimes used to do this procedure as well.
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Older Population / Elderly are keeping and maintaining Their Teeth Longer with better Dental Care
- Older Population / Elderly are keeping and maintaining Their Teeth Longer with better Dental Care:
Dentistry is on the cutting edge of new technology to help patients keep and maintain their teeth longer. In the coming years, as more tech innovation is happening in the dental field – dental care is improving for many to be able to keep their teeth longer. Older Population / Elderly are keeping and maintaining Their Teeth Longer with better Dental Care. 50 years ago, the dental technology available was sparse at best. Now, with dental implants and advanced periodontal treatments available, more and more people in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s are maintaining their teeth.
Online Dental Marketing, Local Dentist Discussion, Local Dentists Chatting Online, Local Emergency Dental Chat Online and Local Dental Blogging Online with us .We are at DentalChat.com are networking with local dentists and dental businesses. DentalChat.com wants to discuss various dental topics and dental issues online. Our dentalchat users can share with us what they want us to discuss here. Dental bloggers, social media groups or dentists can share articles with us. We want to bring value for our users on here. We appreciate all the content people have been sharing with us.
Dental Care for the elderly – this can include periodontal treatment including root planing, gum graft surgery, dental implant placement and dental pocket reduction periodontal procedures. Now dental laser treatment is also helping a lot in this process. As people are living longer, they are expecting to maintain their teeth longer. Now for instance, even those who end up with dentures, can have dental implants placed in them.