TMJoint disease is the improper position or placement of the lower jaw into the joint capsule of the skull, called the Tempero Mandubular Joint (TMJ). This jaw position is dictated by your teeth when they come together. It is in families due to their genetics where deep bites, over bites, under bites, and crowded teeth are common. These types of bites lead to lower jaw misalignment by age 5 or 6.
When the jaw is in this position, the muscles that attach to it work at a disadvantage created dysfunction. In other words, they do not have the proper Range of Motion (ROM) for the necessary recruitment power for swallowing, chewing, speaking, living your life through your face 5,000 times a day!
It’s like riding a bike too small for you to extend your legs… 5,000 times a day, indefinitely. Outside of your heart pumping, your lower jaw is a workhorse. So, a consistent dysfunctional problem is quickly magnified that will change posture, breathing, swallowing, and can cause headaches around the side of the head and behind the eyes. With the head posture forward, the head assumes a weight of 40 pounds on the neck and back on a daily basis with no end in sight. Unless the jaw dysfunction is remedied, the posture problems can never be stable!
Achieving a properly stable 3-dimentional jaw position requires measurement of muscle in the form of electromyography… that is how the neuromuscular orthotic (NMO) is fabricated. It overlays the lower teeth, thereby changing the jaw-to-skull position. This is a life altering change… the NMO created function 5,000 times a day for our jaw muscles! Now your “bite” is confirmed for your muscles with no dysfunction or pain.
The more you bite for chewing, talking, or swallowing, the better the muscle tone and strength. These muscles are affected positively by the orthotic (NMO). They are connected and will affect postural muscles and head position. Remember, since that starts in childhood, your jaw and postural muscles have never experienced function until the NMO begins to do its thing, 5,000 times a day. Strengthening postural muscles with NMO therapy makes the postural therapist’s work easier. How can posture change if 5000 times a day dysfunctional jaw muscle creates the postural muscles?
So, it’s a journey of muscle both in the jaw and how it is related to your forward head posture which becomes treatable with wonderful results. At the TMJ Sleep Center, we give muscles what they want – consistent, functional, range of motion to create strength with a pain free environment. If it’s not measured it’s opinion, if it’s measured it’s fact.