Night Guards Are Not the Only Treatment Option for TMJ Disorders

Night guards, also called mouth guards or bite braces, are a common treatment option for mild TMJ disorders in Arkansas. It works in a similar way to a knee brace. It fits on your upper jaw and absorbs the pressure of the jaw. These night guards also help prevent you from grinding your teeth and clenching your jaw, which reduces damage to the jaw joint. 

Night guards can be an effective treatment option for many patients with TMJ disorders. However, they’re not always right for everyone. Sometimes there are other issues with the jaw joint that need to be addressed directly. 

And this was the case with Olivia. Over time, she realized that the night guard wasn’t working.

“I was chewing through 2-3 night guards a year,” Olivia said.

Solution: A TMJ Specialist in Arkansas

After chewing through about 10-12 mouth guards, Olivia decided to seek out other treatment options. She realized she needed a TMJ specialist in Arkansas. And that’s when she found PRECiDENT Center for Facial and Dental Medicine in Rogers, Arkansas. 

The TMJ specialists at PRECiDENT Arkansas helped Olivia find the relief she was looking for. Dr. Bolding and his team worked together in order to figure out the root cause of her TMJ disorder. Simply prescribing another night guard without taking the time to investigate what was truly going on in her jaw joint wasn’t going to work. So, the PRECiDENT team took an orthopedic approach to diagnosing her TMJ disorder. They started by understanding her medical history. Then, they took time to thoroughly examine her jaw joint. This involved feeling the joint as well as taking images with an MRI.   

A Displaced Disc Was Causing Her TMJ Pain

The MRI revealed that the disc in Olivia’s left jaw joint was displaced. 

In order to truly cure Olivia’s jaw pain, she needed more than just a night guard. The night guards she had been using previously only helped her manage her symptoms. But they weren’t going to fix the problem. She needed to undergo jaw  surgery.

Now, it’s important to remember that not everyone who has a TMJ disorder in Arkansas needs jaw surgery. As we’ve said before, the most effective treatment option depends on the cause of the issues in the jaw joint. If the cause is something like a displaced disc, however, the only real cure is surgery.

Result: Relief from TMJ Pain in Arkansas

Olivia felt relief immediately after her surgery. 

“After surgery, I felt immediate relief. I woke up in recovery feeling better.”

Soon after surgery, Olivia was able to get back to a normal, pain-free life. She no longer felt any pain. Before surgery, she could hardly open her mouth to eat. Now, she has a complete range of motion in her jaw joint, which means she can eat the things she wants, like an apple, without feeling like her jaw is going to break. There’s no more ear pain. No more clicking.