Today’s life is pretty much influenced by stress. Workload, relationship issues and bad overall health make it pretty easier for the adults to enter into the realm of stress after which it becomes inevitable for the people with stressful minds to develop some serious physical and psychological issues. One of such issues is the TMJ disorder, also known as temporomandibular disorder. This disorder is mainly associated with the excess amount of pressure applied to the joints which act as hinges between upper and lower jaws. This problem is usually accompanied with teeth grinding which turns out to be dangerous for dental health from lot of other aspects.
When the problem occurs in TMJ, it causes difficulty in eating and other activities which require proper movement of jaws. This problem can be serious because it can turn out to be a reason behind composition of many health issues. Some of the health issues which occur due to TMJ disorder are as under.
Tooth wear
Apart from the dislodging of joints, TMJ disorder usually results in tooth wear. It is mainly due to the teeth grinding which serves as the reason for development and escalation of TMJ disorder. Now, you may wonder how teeth grinding can be the reason behind tooth wear. Well, it’s quite simple. When you grind your teeth by clenching your jaws, the chewing surfaces of teeth essentially go through sanding like situation, which leads to the tooth wear. The chewing surfaces are flattened due to reduction of enamel, which is hardest art of the human body. If you continue grinding your teeth, the inner part of teeth, also known as dentin, may get exposed, leading to the infectious germs to find a way through the dentin to the teeth’s roots.
Now, the most common instances at which a person grinds teeth usually include time during light sleep and the stressful times of the day. While you may be able to control daytime teeth grinding, you will need to consult your dentist to get rid of teeth grinding during night sleep.
Headaches and migraines
Since TMJ disorder is associated with the stress on joints of jaws, this very pressure can radiate stress to the nearby muscles connected to face, head and neck. As a result, those muscles may start give you the pain, leading you to consider the pain as something like headache and even migraine. This headache can be quite intense and may make you to lose concentration. Although the headache caused by TMJ disorder is not the real headache, the symptoms make it like the real one.
What should you do?
Although you need to make sure that you are preventing this situation, you may not find any help in it. so, it’s worth talking about the treatment options. The first thing you need to do is to visit your dentist. Your dentist may suggest you to have a surgical treatment if the problem has escalated. If the problem is reversible, you may be given treatment plan which you would need to follow at home.
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