Dear Dr. Hughes, I have TMJD for the past 3 years from getting my 1st crown put on and it took over 2 hours. My jaws from a CT scan look good no damage. The dentist I see now and have been seeing ever since the last dentist did my crown work suggests that I try Invisalign braces. He has made me a mouth guard but I have a hard time using it at night as it creates a suction with my cheeks and causes them to be sore with white lines. I am in pain and swelling everyday. He said that my bite if off. My teeth hit my left side of the tongue a lot causing more swelling in the mouth. Also in one place my upper teeth are hitting the lower teeth, a high bite, causing terrible pain and he has to file down the teeth to correct it. I have this done now about every 4 months because my bite is off. I clench my teeth during stressful times without me knowing it. I tighten up my jaw/facial muscles when I am stress which happens to be a lot due to the pain. At night I clench. My jaw jerks sideways sometimes especially when I am nervous. That makes my teeth slam into each other causing more pain. I am a light sleeper and I wake up with a jerk and my jaw jerks violently sideways or clamps down very hard. My dentist thinks fixing the bite with Invisalign braces will correct the bite which in turn will correct these other problems. I can have any metal in my mouth due to allergy to the metal. I do not want the Invisalign braces to make my TMJ worse. Do you know if they can help like in my case. He also said the Invisalign braces acts like a mouth guard too which is good for me. He is very nice and gentle with me. What would your advice be for my situation. Most of my teeth are straigth except I have a over bite, my 2 upper front teeth cross over a little from me sucking my thumb when I was little, and a little crowding on the upper and lower teeth. I have only 1 crown on the left upper back side. My TMJD is only on the left side after my crown was put in. All my silver fillings have been replace with white fillings due to allergy to metal now. No gum disease or bleeding. Pretty healthy mouth except for the bite being off. My tongue gets bite a lot and so it is swollen a lot too with pain. I hope you will be able to email me back as I see him next week for the start of the braces.