Serving Patients in the areas of Grand Rapids, Holland, and Big Rapids MIIf you suffer from temporomandibular joint disorder, your symptoms may be completely different from another person who has this ailment. Also referred to as TMJ disorder or TMD, this condition often causes severe pain—debilitating enough to impede your ability to function on a daily basis. This pain may emanate from the jaw joints, the face, or even the neck, back, and shoulders in an advanced case of the disorder. However, even severe pain emanating from the jaw and face is not an accurate indicator in and of itself that TMJ disorder exists. Another ailment that can cause this type of pain is fibromyalgia. Let’s take a deeper look at the similarities between TMJ disorder and fibromyalgia, and how a trained neuromuscular dentist in Grand Rapids can tell the difference between them.
For people who suffer from fibromyalgia, performing even the simplest tasks can produce agonizing pain. Facial and jaw pain could result from something as common as chewing, yawning, or talking. Experiencing this pain on a daily basis, multiple times per day, may lead fibromyalgia sufferers to brace their jaw muscles. This bracing leads to muscle fatigue and, eventually, limited range of motion of the jaws—another common symptom reported by TMD patients.
Managing pain is the biggest challenge when treating fibromyalgia patients. Remedies that have found success in the past may include meditation, restorative yoga, and even just having a positive outlook on life. Certain medications also have proven beneficial, especially ones that increase or restore levels of endorphins and serotonin. Fibromyalgia patients also may seek dermal filler injections. These dermal fillers, when administered in combination with jaw motion exercises, have been found to alleviate jaw muscle pain.
This disorder stems from a dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint, a small round joint that connects the jaw to the skull. When a problem develops with this joint, it quickly spreads, affecting the nearby joints, musculature, and nerves. The jaws soon are impacted, as is the trigeminal nerve, which carries more sensory information to the brain than any other neural pathway in the body. The aggravation of this nerve is one reason why TMD patients often feel such profound levels of pain.
Click here for a complete list of the frequently reported symptoms of TMJ disorder.
Identifying a case of TMJ disorder is one of the greatest diagnostic challenges in all of medical science. In addition to the potential of confusing TMJ disorder with fibromyalgia, patients with TMJ disorder often experience frequent and painful headaches that may be misidentified as migraines. A neuromuscular dentist has extensive post-graduate training and education, focusing on the alignment of the bite and jaw. Neuromuscular dentists are adept at identifying the symptoms of TMJ disorder and differentiating this ailment from other conditions.
Our dentists at TMJ & Sleep Disorders of Michigan—Dr. Jerry Mulder and Dr. Allyson Mulder—both have the experience and training in neuromuscular dentistry to help individuals with TMJ disorder find relief. If you are experiencing some of the symptoms of this disorder or pain from fibromyalgia, please schedule an evaluation today by calling us at (616) 458-0631.
TMJ & Sleep Disorders of Michigan serves the needs of patients located in the areas of Big Rapids, Grand Rapids, and Holland, Michigan.
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