TMJ Treatment Northern Arizona

Jaw Pain, Headaches, & Bad Sleep

On top of persistent exhaustion, another common sign of sleep apnea is chronic jaw pain and frequent headaches/migraines. As you can imagine, most people wouldn’t consider this type of pain to stem from bad sleep, but the conditions are deeply connected. Thankfully, treating one often resolves the other! To learn more about this often-overlooked relationship, and how our team at Sleep Better Southwest can help with TMJ treatment in Northern Arizona, keep reading.

Why Choose Sleep Better Southwest for TMJ Treatment?

Led by a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine

Custom-Made Oral Appliances for Each Patient

Fast Pain Relief with Laser Treatment

Illustrated x ray of a head with the jawbone highlighted red

What is TMJ Disorder?

If you wiggle your jaw from side to side, you’ll feel your TMJ (temporomandibular joint) in front of your ears. This is what allows it to move in all directions whenever you speak, eat, or laugh. Just like your knee, elbow, or shoulder, this joint can become strained and develop frequent pain and stiffness. Any condition that affects the TMJ is known as a TMJ disorder, or TMD.

Man wincing and holding his jaw in pain before T M J treatment

What Can Cause TMJ Pain?

Several factors can lead to TMJ pain, but a major one is sleep apnea. Basically, as a person struggles to breathe throughout the night, their body naturally tries to open the upper airway. This can lead to a lot of excessive movement in the jaw as well as teeth grinding. Eventually, the muscles tire themselves out and become sore, which is why everything feels so unpleasant when you wake up.

Two dentists looking at an x ray of a patients jaws and teeth

How We Diagnose TMJ Problems

For patients who may be dealing with TMD, we can perform an evaluation known as Bio Joint Vibration Analysis. For this, Dr. Held places a small device on either side of your TMJ and has you move your mouth around in a specific pattern. This device records any sounds the joint makes. By evaluating a readout on a nearby monitor (that he’ll go over with you), Dr. Held can clearly see if there is any damage or resistance in the joint that could be a source of discomfort. This serves as the first step toward providing a solution.

Woman wincing while holding her jaw in pain

TMJ Treatment Options

Often, helping a patient breathe better is all that’s needed to relieve their TMD, but others require a more direct approach.

Smiling woman placing a clear occlusal splint tray over her teeth

Occlusal Splints

This is a specially made mouthguard worn only to bed that serves multiple purposes. It prevents the teeth from grinding together, and it places the jaw in a position so that the facial muscles remain relaxed throughout the night. This allows them to finally rest and heal so a patient can eventually wake up pain-free.

Laser Treatment

Some solutions for TMD can take a little while before someone feels their effects, but in the meantime, we can use MLS and Red Cold Lasers to deliver immediate relief. Exposure to this light energy reduces inflammation, increases blood flow, and gives a patient a fast and welcome respite that will help them remain comfortable while a more robust and long-term treatment tackles the root cause.

TMJ Treatment FAQs

In some cases, discomfort due to TMJ disorder can gradually subside after some time. That said, if your condition starts negatively affecting your daily routine, then you’ll want to seek help from a professional for treatment. While there might be some methods for TMJ therapy that can offer temporary relief, the results won’t be permanent. However, some treatments like occlusal splints are specifically meant to help permanently treat issues with jaw tension, misalignment, and other TMD-related issues, allowing you to enjoy greater and longer-lasting relief.

So long as you receive TMJ treatment from a qualified professional, the process should be entirely safe for you. According to the National Institutes of Health, it’s highly recommended that patients seek TMJ treatment that involves little to no invasive methods. Being able to treat your TMJ problems without requiring you to undergo recovery from surgery is the ideal option, as procedures can always come with a small amount of risks. Occlusal splints and other oral appliances have been shown throughout the years to be completely safe when addressing TMJ disorder.

Most patients will be instructed to wear occlusal splints for TMD every night. In some instances, you might notice that your symptoms begin to go away rather quickly, but this doesn’t mean they’ll disappear altogether. Addressing TMJ and allowing your jaws to adjust to their new, ideal positions will take some time. After about six weeks, most people will notice a stark improvement, but not complete relief from their situation. The majority of the time it’ll take around three to six months for occlusal splints to treat TMJ discomfort. This can vary from patient to patient, and the recovery time can also be shorter or longer depending on the person.

Yes! The National Institutes of Health even highly recommends that people seek the most conservative methods possible for TMJ disorder first before committing to surgical treatment. In many cases, regarding TMJ, less is more. Surgery includes creating permanent changes to the jaws and joints and other nearby anatomy, but this is usually only suggested as a last resort. Since TMD can be addressed with less invasive measures, it’s often best to undergo these options first. Other than treating your TMJ discomfort with at-home remedies, you can also address your condition with solutions like occlusal splints and laser treatment.

More to Explore

What is Sleep Apnea? Sleep Testing Oral Appliance Treatment Myofunctional Therapy Exercises View Our Services