This nightguard is a discreet mouth device that relieves head, neck, and back pain caused by TMJ.

The hinge of our jawbone is the most unique joint in our body. First, it is two sided and secondly, it is only held in place by ligaments and muscle - no rigid cartilage. Thus we freely can move our jaws out of the socket with ease. What keeps the jaw bone and base skull bone from rubbing is a simple pad or disc of dense ligament, which is of course attached to the muscles.

Recent long-term research findings have shed new light on a series of aches and pains of the head, neck, back, and legs that are vague and often unrelated. When the delicate arrangement of the TMJ is injured in an accident (whiplash or direct blow to the jaw), ligaments are stretched, torn and distorted. Because ligaments are one of the least vascular tissue of the body, healing is a slow, slow process. In fact, it may never heal completely.

Another concern is the role that our bite or fit of our teeth has on joint health. Researchers have documented that teeth-positioning overrides the muscle-ligament positioning of our jaws. Thus, if the bite that allows your teeth to close together pushes your jaw backward, the separating disc may be squeezed out with a click or rubbing sound like a watermelon squirted out of between your fingers. That is called internal joint derangement, a now well studied and documented degenerative arthritis condition. If not treated, this process gets worse. It can change the shape of the joint and become increasingly painful.

Diagnostic films (x-rays) called Transcranial Views, allow us to see the mandible-skull relationship and measure the TMJ joint spaces. We use Transcranial Views also to confirm that our treatment has reestablished the proper joint relationship.

A childhood injury to the jaw, a subtle joint click or noise, severe headaches and neck pain, ringing or stuffiness in the ear, or limited jaw opening are each signs and symptoms of degenerative arthritis of the TMJ joint.

Because the jaw problems are usually the jaw being too far back into the joint, discreet mouth devices can be made that hold the lower jaw forward and give the patient relief from the above mentioned symptoms within days.

Finalization consists of other removable intraoral appliances to stabilize the bite to keep the joint in the proper pain-free position and full function. This has proven 98% successful in long term studies, while long term follow up of TMJ joint patients having joint surgery have indicated that the majority of surgery patients got worse with time.

One must remember that this condition is a degenerative arthritis. Once damage is done to any joint it progressively gets worse over time. If the damage is already very advanced it is less likely to repair totally. Thus, it is important to correct these conditions early so as to allow what limited healing possible to occur. So, the earlier you receive treatment for TMJ problems, the better your chances are for long-term joint health.