TMJ & Braces "/

I have two question actually. I suffer from TMJ Syndrome and I was just wondering if there was anything I could do myself to ease the night grinding and jaw pain??

My next question is about braces. Is there anyway to straighten your teeth somewhat without braces or invisaline??

Thanks!

[scottma]

Seeing a tmj specialist is advised.

[efd]

No there is not a way to straighten your teeth without braces ESPECIALLY if you have TMJ issues..BE VERY CAREFUL WHO YOU LET PUT BRACES ON YOUR TEETH WHEN YOU HAVE TMJ.I ahve over 23 years in the field and have seen plenty of disasters from people who won't believe that it takes someone with years of experience as an Orthodontist and TMJ specialist to treat the TMJ patient. Its hard work and only a dedicated well trained doctor should touch you.

[efd]

As far as the grinding, a TMJ appliance (lower only please) will help and magnisum is a good narural muscles relaxer.Best to use magnisium malate and lower your calcium intake or at least make sure you take a little more mag than calcium. Remember, whenyou are grinding your teeth you are damaging the roots and causing bone loss so get some help with protecting your teeth from the adverse effects of grinding.

[Tammy2009]

Think of a nice future without pain.  I am 21 years old and back to full braces (third round) and jaw surgery next year to raise upper jaw, widen palate and bring lower jaw forward.  I had a very bad flare-up of my TMJ in september that made me basically useless for over a week because of the pain.  I'm tired of just dealing with it, and since I want to go for a full cure I hope fixing my bite will do that.  

I just found out that my first "orthodonist" was really only a general dentist even though all he did was ortho work.  Now I am with a functional orthodonist specialist and feel a lot more comfortable with his knowledge and the clinic.  I even had a CT scan done of my jaw in the clinic (which is also helping us figure out why my nose/sinuses are so congested) and he explained everything thoroughly.  

to michelle_764

I am curious to why you say to have a lower TMJ appliance.  I went through two different bite guards at night.  The first one was a bottom one and worked wonders (why I thought I would leave my jaw since it seemed fine).  The second one was done by a different dentist and he choose to do an upper appilance.  It did not work as well but kept pain bearable.  However it slowly didn't help as much over the span of 3 years and now I have a new dentist specialist, orthodonist and chiropactor.  I know my normal dentist was clueless about the jaw because the bite guard is flat (not helping my poor bite which is the cause) and the only suggestion he had to help when my jaw was sore was to consult an oral surgeon.