If you haven't heard of neuromuscular dentistry, you're missing out on the healthiest, most remarkable form of dentistry available. Neuromuscular dentistry considers the nerves and muscles and the correct positioning of the jaw. Traditional dentistry focuses only on the teeth and jaw, leaving out some of the elements that are critical to your entire mouth working in harmony.

The comprehensive approach of neuromuscular dentistry means that the solutions to your dental problems are more precise, more comfortable, longer lasting, and protect your teeth and jaw from future damage. Neuromuscular dentistry can also resolve and prevent TMD (temporomandibular joint disorder), a condition of the jaw joint that can cause chronic, debilitating pain throughout the body.

Your teeth and the nerves, muscles, and joints of your jaw must work together in harmony for good dental health. A misaligned bite (malocclusion) causes jaw tension that can spread to tension in your face, head, neck and shoulders.

When dental solutions including fillings, crowns, and dentures are created imprecisely or without taking your bite into consideration, they can actually create damaging problems with your bite. The results can include damage to the restorations, causing them to fail or wear out quickly, damage to other teeth, general discomfort or pain, and TMD.

Tooth grinding

Grinding your teeth is more than just an annoying problem, it can cause serious damage to your teeth. You may grind your teeth in your sleep and not be aware of it. Often the only noticeable symptoms are daytime headaches or a very irritated bedmate. Over time you can chip, crack, or break your teeth. You may experience toothaches for no apparent reason.

Some people can stop daytime clenching and grinding on their own, but it's not something you can control in your sleep. A neuromuscular dentist can provide solutions for tooth grinding which can include nightguards, jaw exercises, stress relieving techniques, or even oral appliances or surgery to correct serious TMD.

Headaches and neck pain

TMD can strike in many ways. One common scenario involves severe headaches or neck and pain after an auto accident or injury. Believing that you have an unresolved neck injury from whiplash, you seek help from one doctor after the next, often getting prescriptions for heavy pain medications. Sometimes the pain meds help for a while, but the pain keeps coming back. This can go on for years or even a lifetime.

Doctors usually don't make the connection. They believe that you have an elusive soft tissue injury or some other problem in your neck that they can't pin down. In reality, trauma can trigger TMD. Only a neuromuscular dentist has the training and the equipment to diagnose and treat TMD, relieving your pain. The beauty of TMD treatment is that many patients begin to experience relief after their first visit.