TMJ/TMD Treatment in Bolton, ON

Although many diseases are affected by psychological factors like stress, most dental conditions are not. However, TMJ or temporomandibular joint disorder is one of the few dental conditions that is often aggravated by stress. As such, your dentist can help you if you suffer from this condition with a TMJ/TMD treatment.

How Does Stress Affect TMJ?

Many dentists believe that stress plays a role in TMJ because it’s often reflected in habits that you may not be aware of, such as clenching your jaw or grinding your teeth in your sleep. Both habits can aggravate TMJ, causing the jaw joint to hurt, not to mention the damage grinding does to the teeth.

Stress Relief Treatments

If one of our dentists at South Hill Dental believes that stress is playing a role in your TMJ, they may prescribe stress-relief therapy and exercises. Meditation may be one of their suggestions because it can relax the mind and body, which can reduce stress and allow you to sleep better at night.

Our dentist in Bolton, ON, may also recommend wearing a nightguard to protect your teeth and cushion the impact on your jaw when grinding your teeth at night. The night guard will also keep the surfaces of your teeth from wearing down, which can eventually cause your teeth to crack or break.

Although the pain caused by TMJ usually goes away on its own, jaw exercises can help reduce the pain from it too. Our dentists at South Hill Dental keep up with the latest innovative information on TMJ treatments, including exercises like those for TMJ that can reduce pain.

They will recommend and briefly demonstrate some of the exercises they would like you to do to treat the disorder. The exercises are simple and easy, and they’ve been proven to help many people with their TMJ symptoms.

Talk to one of our dentists at South Hill Dental in Bolton, ON, about jaw exercises before starting them. If your TMJ/TMD symptoms are severe, then your dentist may not recommend the exercises, because they might cause further damage to your mandibular joint. It’s better to broach the subject with our knowledgeable dentists before starting them on your own.