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Gainesville
1221 Sherwood Park Dr., NE
Gainesville, GA 30501
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There are several types
of pain associated with TMJ Syndrome that encompass many problems
that are often confused with other pain disorders. Without proper diagnosis,
patients suffering from what is actually TMJ Syndrome might be treated for
conditions they do not have. The more common of these ailments that have
pain similar to TMJ pain yet are actually a totally different entity are:
- Otitis media,
which is an inflammation of the middle ear;
- Temporal arteritis, inflammation
of the temporal artery, which lies in front of the ear going up into the
scalp; and
- Migraine and cluster headaches, which are vascular-type headaches.
Treatment For TMJ Pain
TMJ Pain is what usually brings a patient to seek treatment of his/her temporomandibular
joint. Yet the most diagnostic and important feature is the decrease in
function of the temporomandibular joint. As has been written previously,
the function of the temporomandibular joint is described as follows:
- Should have an incisal opening of approximately 50mm, which is the width
of three adult fingers stacked on top of each other and
- Should be able
to open that distance without deviation, without pain, and without noise.
Those factors are the functional aspect of the joint. The lack of function
is the overlying characteristic of a temporomandibular joint disorder.
As a sidelight, surgical treatment of temporomandibular joints is often
considered a "radical" surgery. Indeed, it is not radical surgery,
it is a very commonly performed procedure. The best correlation to this
type of surgery that is treated routinely is a rotator cuff tear of the
shoulder or meniscal tear of the knee. People do not hesitate to have surgical
correction of these problems, but people are quite hesitant to have temporomandibular
joint surgery. This could be due to the lack of current information or just
not being aware of the treatment modalities offered today.
People do not hesitate to have knee or shoulder surgery due to their limited
motion and mobility, but many people suffer for years with inability to
open their mouths wide enough to eat a hamburger or to even yawn, and TMJ pain is what eventually causes them to seek treatment. Restoration of the function
of the temporomandibular joint is quite frequently achieved with modern
surgical techniques with a resultant marked decrease or absence of pain.
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© 2005, Dr. Fred H. Simonton, III All rights
reserved.
by: Red Clay Interactive |
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