TMJ Doctor

So the TMJ (Temporal Mandibular Joint) Doctor says that the reason why I have pain in my jaw is because my central nervous system doesn't tell my jaw to relax when my muscles tense up at night.

Some big percentage (I think he said 60%) of people clench some muscles when they sleep at night. Most of these people never have problems because their central nervous system adapts to that and knows when to tell the body to stop and relax.

I never had jaw pain until after I got my braces off. The doctor said that since the braces moved my teeth around, the places where my teeth touch when I close my mouth are different. The central nervous system is now confused, so it doesn't know when to tell my jaw to relax. As a result, my jaw clenches when I sleep, so the muscles get really tight and lock up my jaw. The pain, popping, and tightness are all caused by my muscles over exerting themselves at night.

The solution? A simple orthodic (mouth guard) that sits on my teeth like a retainer. There is a piece of acrylic that touches my front teeth whenever I close my jaw. Since the nerves on my front teeth are denser than they are on my back teeth, this sends a lot of signals to my central nervous system to tell the muscles to back off and relax.

I've been wearing this orthodic when I sleep for a little more than a week, and it is amazing! The first morning when I woke up, I opened my mouth and there was no pain or tightness at all. I felt like I had never had TMJ pain in my life. As the day progressed, my pain returned, but every day since it has been getting better and better.

I love the feeling NOT being in pain. I feel so good!

But what I don't love is the doctors bill...for the visit and the orthodic: $2,575.