What Causes TMD?
Have you heard the acronym TMD? It stands for Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction or Disorder. There are many causes ranging from trauma to overuse.
We at your Golden, CO dental office are educated with the connection between TMD and posture alignment. Everyday activity such as driving, working at a computer and playing video games causes our head to hang forward. When your head hangs forward it is in misalignment. Misalignment anywhere in the body causes muscles to be overworked and stressed. Overworking muscles and stressing them causes tension and pain. The head and neck muscles are all connected so, if there is a misalignment or poor posture more often than not you will find a misalignment in the jaw. If there is a misalignment in the jaw people will often have pain, tiredness, clicking, popping, and grinding in the jaw. If someone has any or all of these symptoms and it is not treated, as we age, you will then start seeing problems like, wear on the teeth, breaking or fracturing of teeth, bone loss, recession of the gums, and the list could go on.
We at Genesee Dental like to fix the problem and not just treat pain. Dr. Sprout and his team have taken many continuing education courses specifically on neuromuscular dentistry which has led to the understanding that most people have poor posture therefore; most people will have, at some point in their life, TMD. We can fix this problem simply by being aware of our posture every moment. The correct posture should be; sitting up straight, the ears are in line (plane) with the shoulders and back is straight.
At our Golden, Co dentist office we are privileged to have a hygienist that has taken continuing education on body alignment and posture. She has wonderful exercises and tricks that can help correct a poor posture. If you are interested please contact us and she would be thrilled to share her story and knowledge with you.