I have TMJD and my dentist recommended Invisalign, do you think that this would help?
Q.
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.
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.
A.
It is very possible to correct bites using Invisalign as one option. In fact where TMJ dysfunction is present it’s often the best option, as your dentist has correctly said , the Invisalign acts as a bite guard and it’s worn almost 24 hours a day. One must be very careful however, if TMJD is already present, to ensure that the final positoning of the teeth is suitable to relieve the TMJ problems. A dentist with experience and skill in treating TMJ problems as well as experience with Invisalign would be a pre-requisite. I have treatment many cases of TMJ problem very successfully with Invisalign myself. Hope that helps.
It is very possible to correct bites using Invisalign as one option. In fact where TMJ dysfunction is present it’s often the best option, as your dentist has correctly said , the Invisalign acts as a bite guard and it’s worn almost 24 hours a day. One must be very careful however, if TMJD is already present, to ensure that the final positoning of the teeth is suitable to relieve the TMJ problems. A dentist with experience and skill in treating TMJ problems as well as experience with Invisalign would be a pre-requisite. I have treatment many cases of TMJ problem very successfully with Invisalign myself. Hope that helps.
Hello Dr. Hughes,
I did in fact went ahead and tried the Invisalign braces. Sad thing after 7 hours of having them in I had to remove them due to my mouth/face swelling up terribly from having an allergic reaction to them. It was hard for me and my jaw when I had the pre apts to get them made. It did in fact flared up the TMJ. I had to return the braces to my dentist and he had to report to the company my terrible allergic reaction to them. Finally after so many months they think I was allergic to the sterilization/cleaning solution that was still on the braces at the time they cleaned them. Once I had them in my mouth as time went on my tongue was getting extremely sore and swollen along with my whole inside of my mouth red and the back of my throat was red too. I had to go back to him and he saw the swelling and all the red in my mouth. Also the outside of my face was all swollen too. I also had to go to my doctor for her to see how bad it was. Thankfully after a few days most of the allergic reaction was gone. Sad thing was it really ended up causing more stress on me and my TMJ flared up real bad. Now I am not doing anything and decided to not try anything new as the inside of my mouth is just too sensitive from me contracting Oral Staph Infection back in 2008. I still see the same dentist as he is a very good and compassionate dentist. I have noticed that if I get into a deep sleep my jaw jerking and night time clenching has stopped. So right now I am taking a natural herb, Valerian Root and Melatonin 1mg to help me get into the deep sleep that I need. Since then I have not jaw jerk. So as you can see this medical problem is very tiring to me but I am trying to slowly and carefully find things that will help me. Thank you for your response.
Dawn
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