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Joint Treatment and Teeth Clenching/Grinding

joint-treatment-and-teeth-grinding

Why Do Joint Disorders Occur?

Joint disorders have many causes; they can occur suddenly as a result of a blow to the jaw area, or over time due to prolonged teeth clenching. Joint disorders generally include:

  • Trauma

  • With the effect of autoimmune diseases

  • Stress-related teeth clenching and grinding

  • As a result of long-term toothlessness

  • It occurs as a result of faulty fillings and prostheses.

How to Understand Joint Disorders?

Joint disorders:

  • Pain around the ear

  • Variable sound during mouth opening and closing

  • Difficulty and limitation in opening and closing the mouth

  • Jaw shifting to the right/left when opening and closing the mouth

  • It manifests with symptoms such as pain in the corners of the jaw and temples.

How are joint disorders treated?

Since joint disorders usually manifest after a long period of deformation, the primary goal of treatment is not to restore the tissues to their former state, but to alleviate the patient's clinical findings (such as pain and limitation of mouth opening) and prevent the progression of the disease.

A crucial aspect of the treatment process is accurately diagnosing whether the underlying joint problem originates from bone, disc, or muscle. Various medications and hard/soft plate treatments can be used in both cases, while Botox has recently yielded very successful results for muscle-related problems. For bone and disc-related problems, intra-articular irrigation and hyaluronic acid injections are beneficial. Patients may also be referred to a physical therapist during the treatment process if necessary. If these treatments fail to provide any benefit, joint surgery may be necessary.

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