The temporomandibular joints (TMJ) are like two hinges on each side of your jaw, connecting the jaw to the skull. These hinges allow you to open your mouth, talk, chew, and do any activity requiring movement of your jaw. More than 44 people in the United States alone suffer from some level of TMJ pain.
Of the 44 million TMJ sufferers, 40 million of them have been diagnosed with a sleep disorder as well. It is not uncommon for the problems to go hand in hand.
What Causes TMJ?
TMJ is often due to a misalignment of the upper cervical spine. This is the uppermost part of the spine that runs through the neck—when the vertebrae in the neck are misaligned due to poor posture, an accident, or rough activities, it causes a domino effect throughout the musculoskeletal system, putting strain and stress on other joints.
How TMJ Disorder Interferes with Sleep
Sufferers of TMJ pain typically grind their teeth in their sleep. This grinding is bad for the temporomandibular joints and the teeth and generally makes jaw pain worse. This jaw pain can be bad enough to wake you out of sound sleep or keep you on the lighter surface of sleep so that you're not getting proper rest.
Often, TMJ pain is caused by the jaw joints being misaligned. This can cause your airway to be obstructed when you fall asleep. For some people, this results in snoring, breathing problems, and sleep apnea (when you temporarily stop breathing). These problems can also keep you from entering the deeper stages of sleep.
Sleep apnea is particularly dangerous, increasing your risk of abnormal heartbeats, lower blood pressure, coronary artery disease, heart attack, heart failure, and stroke.
How We Treat TMJ Patients to Help with Sleep Disorders
Our goal is to get at the root of the problem so that we can alleviate the pain of TMJ dysfunction and relieve sleep disorders. We do this by offering a natural, non-invasive, drug-free treatment plan that involves correcting misalignments of the upper cervical spine.
Dr. Gordon Elder is our upper cervical spine specialist at the Blair Chiropractic Clinic in Lubbock, Texas. Dr. Elder is a practitioner of the Blair Chiropractic Technique, a modern technique that combines gentle hands-on care with highly advanced technology.
Dr. Elder begins his treatment with an in-depth health screening. Included in this screening are 3D diagnostic imaging tools to help him best assess your unique anatomy.
The second step of Dr. Elder's treatment is the healing phase. Due to superior scanning, he can make exact adjustments with precision. This allows him to use a gentle touch that does not involve the jarring twists and jerks associated with traditional chiropractic techniques.
Once the upper cervical spine's proper alignment is restored, the strain is removed from the rest of the musculoskeletal system and the body can begin healing and correcting itself. This should relieve TMJ pain and result in improved sleep at night.
A final step of Dr. Elder's treatment plan is ongoing preventative care to ensure the spine remains in a healthy state.
If you're suffering from TMJ pain and sleep disorders, contact Dr. Elder for more information. Our areas of coverage include Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, Abilene, and El Paso in Texas, as well as Hobbs in New Mexico.
Published by Vic Belonogoff: A Blair Chiropractic doctor helped heal vertigo, among other conditions that Vic Belonogoff suffered from, and it gave him his life back. He continues to see an upper cervical chiropractor as a preventative measure. Vic Belonogoff is passionate about upper cervical chiropractic and how much it helps patients.