What is bruxism? What is TMJ?

Bruxism is the clenching and / or grinding of your teeth, especially at night. Clenching refers to tightly clamping your top and bottom teeth together The force of clenching causes stressful pressure on the muscles, tissues and jaw. Jaw disorders, jaw pain, soreness, headaches, earaches, damaged teeth and other problems can result from bruxism. If clenching causes jaw pain, it can disrupt sleeping and eating, lead to other dental problems or create TMJ problems. Nightly grinding can also disturb sleeping partners. Your dentist can make a clear night guard for you to sleep in to alleviate the clenching or grinding.

The temporomandibular joint, also known as TMJ, is the ball and socket joint that connects the lower jaw to the bone on each side of the head. The temporomandibular joint is stabilized by muscles that make it possible to open and close the mouth. The pain, discomfort or tenderness in or around these joints are referred to as TMJ disorders.

Signs and symptoms of TMJ disorder can include:

• Tenderness or pain in the face
• Pain in the jaw
• Pain in or around the ear
• Pain in the neck area
• Stiffness in jaw
• Chewing discomfort
• Difficulty chewing
• Headaches
• Difficulty opening and closing the mouth
• Locking of the jaw
• Painful clicking of the jaw
• Teeth that don't come together properly when eating or chewing

It's also important to note that some clicking of the jaw is normal and that other problems can cause facial pain, such as sinus, headaches and earaches.

 

 

 

*answers sourced from http://dentistry.about.com