|
Video: Lock Jaw Treatment
Child - Adult Therapy Examples
Locking Jaws Survey - Poll
Google a specialist
Unlocking Lockjaw
Oral Surgery Resources
Neuromuscular Dentists
Pick the Best
Question:
Jaw Locking Up: I am 18 years old, have had my wisdom teeth removed about a year ago because I noticed my jaw was locking up then, but recently it has started happening again, particularly when I eat.
Whenever I eat I can often feel my jaw cracking, and then sometimes it locks up and I can then barely open my mouth. Please help!
What is likely to be causing this? Is there anything I can do from home? ...Visitor from PA
Answer:
I think that what is happening when your jaw locks is called subluxation.
The muscles that open and close the lower jaw can become spastic.
In anatomical terms, the head of the condyle of your lower jaw (put your fingers in front of your ears and open and close your mouth. The moving part in front of your ear attached to your lower jaw is the head of the condyle) travels too far forward and slips out of the joint space in front of your ear and gets stuck under the articular eminence behind the joint space.
I will try to show you this in a picture.
http://www.rad.washington.edu/anatomy/modules/TMJ/images/NormMeniscus.MOV
If you can't see this picture, google "TMJ anatomy" to see it.
In the animation, the lower "thumb-like" bone is the head of the condyle and the downward bump on the upper image to the left is the articular eminence. The lower bone can travel up the slope to the farthest left and get stuck; therefore your mouth would be locked open.
I would recommend that you see a dentist who is very knowledgeable about TMJ. This could be a general dentist who has extra training in occlusion and TMJ disorders. Credentials worth inquiring about would be any affiliations with the Neuromuscular Dentistry program at the Las Vegas Institute (LVI) or the Amerian Academy of Craniofacial Pain.
I would probably get you on a low dose of a muscle relaxant at bedtime for about 2 weeks (2 mg. valium is my favorite) and get you in a nightguard or NTI appliance.
If your jaw is not in the proper position, you are probably grinding your teeth at night which would make this worse.
The NTI device is a small, clear, taco shell-shaped appliance that fits over the upper two front teeth. Attached on the incisal edges of the taco shell is a bump or a bar that extends anteriorally and posteriorally to provide the point stop.
NTI stands for Nociceptive Trigeminal Inhibition. This is a technical way of saying the jaw opening is a reflex, and this device provides a way to suppress the elevating muscles of mastication (your spastic muscles).
Hope this helps. Good luck to you.
Corinne Scalzitti, DMD, MAGD
Austin Reconstructive Implant Dentistry
3900 RR 620 South
Austin, Texas TX 78738
(512) 263-3330
|
|
