The Orofacial Pain Center

The TMJ his has become the catch acronym of any undiagnosed problem of facial pain, jaw pain or popping jaw. Fortunately, the TMJ is not a disease process, but an anatomical part of the body. Patients have been led to believe; however, that the source of their problem is the joint. In truth, health care professionals, for the most part, who tell their patients they have “TMJ” are really telling their patients that they do not know what the problem is. What is TMJ? TMJ stands for Temporomandibular Joint. These are the two jaw joints that function in opening, closing, talking and chewing. These functions are very specialized and when trauma is inflicted on the joint(s) the damage can be severe. TMD stands for Temporomandibular Disorder. Dr. Dennis and The Orofacial Pain Center use this term to describe the pain that patients experience in the head and neck, because until they have a diagnosis they do not know if the source of the pain is truly the joint(s) or something else.

The doctors tend to refer to management of this problem as TMJ treatment or TMD treatment. TMJ treatment refers to specific management of a popping jaw and TMD management usually refers to management of facial pain, jaw pain and neck pain. Other sources of pain in the head and neck can be from nerve pain, cervical neck degeneration or pain from a neoplasm. The pain experienced can be an achy, throbbing, sharp, stabbing, crushing or burning pain. Pain type and intensity quite often helps to narrow the suspected sources of the pain. There are usually multiple factors that go into the pain patterns of most patients. This practice’s goal is to help our patients figure out what are the sources of the problem and to do the best to give them relief if pain is the overriding problem the patient is facing.

Your First Appointment With Us

Your first visit to The Orofacial Pain Center will include a thorough examination by Dr. Dennis, herself. This visit may last 2 to 3 hours. After the examination, further tests may be ordered. A consultation appointment will follow to discuss the diagnoses and recommended treatment options.

The initial approach to therapy is conservative and reversible. No treatment that permanently alters the teeth is provided at our practice. Therefore, if dental therapy is indicated, the patient’s dentist will be contacted for advice on recommended treatment or referral. Some examples of things we do offer at our practice include bite splint therapy, physical therapy, massage therapy, and myofascial release treatment by a licensed massage therapist.

TMD Diagnosis and Tools

The Orofacial Pain Center offers comprehensive TMD diagnosis to evaluate the TMJ. The term TMD covers a broad range of dysfunctions and disorders of the Temporo-Mandibular Joint (TMJ), aka the jaw joint.

The TMJ is evaluated on four basic criteria.

• Comfort

• Movement

• Mechanical Stability

• Structural Stability

When one or more of these factors are out of harmony, the likelihood that the TMJ is actively breaking down and adapting unfavorably increases and warrants more investigation to assess the condition. A TMD diagnosis may require only a few, or perhaps a combination, of these tests:

• Detailed clinical exam, including muscle testing and range of motion studies

• Occlusal analysis – a study of how the teeth rub against each other

• Mounted study models and diagnostic photographs

• A Doppler device is used to evaluate the patient’s joint sounds CBCT X-ray of the bones of the face and jaw

• MRI of the soft tissue, muscles and cartilages of the face and jaw