Temporomandibular Disorder

Temporomandibular disorder, or TMD, is a range of disorders that encompass the temporomandibular joint. The temporomandibular joint connects the jaw, or mandible, or the temporal bone. As the reader comprehends this paper, he will come to find that TMD is different from TMJ due to society’s misunderstanding of the disorder. After the student began her research, she hypothesized that anyone could develop a temporomandibular disorder, orthodontic treatment would be the main cause of TMD, and women would have worse symptoms than men would. The student will examine the statistics, symptoms, diagnostic process, the categories of TMD, and treatment of this painful disease.

TMD encompasses a wide range of disorders, each affecting certain age groups.

TMJ disorders can include joint pain disorders such as arthritis, joint disorders like hypomobility or hypermobility, joint diseases like osteoarthritis, and fractures. The masticatory muscle disorder category includes muscle pain in the facial region, contracture, hypertrophy, neoplasm, movement disorders, and pain contributed to disorders such as fibromyalgia. The headache category is composed of one type of disorder, the headache attached to the temporomandibular joint. All of these categories can be treated by certain self-management techniques, exercises and physical therapy, cognitive-behavioral intervention, medications, and dental procedures.

A patient can cope with a temporomandibular disorder by using certain self-management techniques. The first one that will be discussed is applying heat and ice. Seventy-four percent of TMD sufferers reported that it reduced pain. Eating soft foods can be beneficial, because the jaw does not need to work as hard to chew. Caffeine can aggravate headaches; the less caffeine, the better in this case. Patients should not be tempted to drink coffee to reduce their headache because it will only make it worse. See chart on display board for more information. Certain exercises can be beneficial to TMD pain

There are many categories of procedures, including prosthodontic therapy, and TMJ surgery and implants. These two are the main treatment categories out of many. Prosthodontic therapy stabilizes the jaw by means of a mouth guard. As the name suggests, orthodontists perform this type of therapy. TMJ surgery is performed under anesthesia and in an operating room. The surgery can be as simple as flushing the TMJ or as serious as joint replacement. After the surgery is completed, there may be a short hospital stay, where physical therapists will start the patient on jaw exercises. A specialist usually recommends these procedures to the