96 Yellow Creek Road  Evanston, WY  307.444 .4466

TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint)

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The temporomandibular (tem-puh-roe-man-DIB-u-lur) joint (TMJ) acts like a sliding hinge, connecting your jawbone to your skull. You have one joint on each side of your jaw. TMJ disorders — a type of temporomandibular disorder or TMD — can cause pain in your jaw joint and in the muscles that control jaw movement.

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The exact cause of a person's TMJ disorder is often difficult to determine. Your pain may be due to a combination of factors, such as genetics, arthritis or jaw injury. Some people who have jaw pain also tend to clench or grind their teeth (bruxism), although many people habitually clench or grind their teeth and never develop TMJ disorders.

In most cases, the pain and discomfort associated with TMJ disorders is temporary and can be relieved with self-managed care or nonsurgical treatments.

Surgery is typically a last resort after conservative measures have failed, but some people with TMJ disorders may benefit from surgical treatments.

What we do:

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We work with temporomandibular joint dysfunctions (TMJ) by making sure the cervical spine is moving.  The cervical spine can often refer pain into the TMJ. After clearing the cervical spine, we then examine the movement of the jaw, the bite and relaxing the jaw muscles that affect jaw movement.  This is often done with a gloved hand releasing the muscles in your mouth and with trigger point dry needles that release the muscles that are hard to reach in the jaw. This allows the little meniscal disc that is in your jaw move properly and minimize popping and pain in the TMJ.

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