Experiencing jaw pains is stressful, but it could be even more disturbing if you don’t know the cause. Temporomandibular disorder comes with many symptoms that may be as many as the causes. The disorder is not unusual, however, and quite some people suffer from it. Although it is believed that most chronic diseases affect older people, this one is more common in young people. You can read more about the possible causes of jaw pain below to get a better understanding of TMD and its symptoms. Temporomandibular disorder is the pain in the muscles of the face and jaw. Due to this, you may experience some discomfort when eating, but it could also be present when talking.
The symptoms of TMD remain manageable, but the disorder itself can cause a significant level of pain. The symptoms could be acute and appear unexpectedly, or they could be chronic and appear more regularly over some years. It could cause problems chewing with possible pains. The primary cause of the pain when chewing is the tenderness in the muscles and joints and also the jaw pains. It can also create an occasionally locked jaw. If the jaw gets stuck in a closed or open position, this could be a symptom of TMD. TMD could make it hard for patients to fully open or close your mouth.
There several things that could make TMD symptoms to appear and this makes it difficult to pin it to an absolute cause. The main advantage of TMD is that most of its symptoms are mild and can be controlled easily.
Injuries are just one of the causes of TMD. Traumatic injuries could cause damage to your head and neck muscles leading to symptoms of TMD. Direct impact to the head or face and more specifically the area near the jaws could impact in the same way.
TMD could be caused by developing arthritis in the temporomandibular joint be it genetic or from past trauma. Rheumatoid arthritis patients experience jaw pains more predominantly. This has led to doctors and medical researchers concluding that the two are related. Disc erosion could also be another cause of jaw pains and TMD symptoms. Erosion of the TMJ disc could be dangerous as it is painful since it may cause asymmetries in the jaw which causes it to shift out of its natural position.
Grinding and clenching your teeth or bruxism as it may be known to some is not advisable as it poses the same risk as these. Constantly grinding your teeth could damage your teeth and cause a misaligned bite.
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