TMJ is most correctly referred today as TMD, meaning Temporomandibular Disorder. The vast majority of scientific research clearly demonstrates that “your teeth and the way they bite together” is the primary driving cause of TMD symptoms, including TMJ clicking and popping, pain in the jaw joints, headaches, ear pain, jaw tiredness, neck strain, and teeth clenching and grinding.

Your lower jaw is a “floating bone”, meaning it is suspended in a hammock of muscles and tendons. The lower jaw relationship to the upper jaw, called the cranio-mandibular position, has a certain physiologic ideal position where TMJ joints, muscles, and nerves are not strained or compressed. Your teeth and bite, however, can develop, change, shift, or be lost over time independent of the lower jaw bone.

Your teeth are dominant, and your TMJ joints, facial muscles, and head and neck position will all move to accommodate that bite! This means your lower jaw will shift to a place where your teeth will come together as best they can. Unfortunately, that place is often not a good one for the health of your TMJ joints, surrounding muscles and neck causing compression, clicking/popping, muscle hyperactivity, headaches and ear symptoms, including congestion, ringing, and vertigo. Teeth grinding and sensitive teeth are also a result of this dental malocclusion and resulting jaw shift and torque.

Our office uses Gneuromuscular (GNM) Orthopedic principles to treat and fix TMD and headaches at their source by finding the long term optimized (symptom free) position for your bite and jaw. Once we use computerized jaw, bite, and EMG tracking to find this ideal position, we fabricate a “GNM orthotic” that establishes a comfortable bite position in a noninvasive, nonsurgical, and reversible manner. The GNM anatomic orthotic can be used long term, or can serve as an exact template for any conservative permanent dentistry that can done to replicate that ideal and comfortable position.