Rheumatoid Arthritis Support

There are many external factors that place undue strain on the TMJ. These include but are not limited to the following:

Over-opening the jaw beyond its range for the individual or unusually aggressive or repetitive sliding of the jaw sideways (laterally) or forward (protrusive). These movements may also be due to parafunctional habits or a malalignment of the jaw or dentition. This may be due to:

# Trauma

# Bruxism (repetitive unconscious clenching or grinding of teeth, often at night).

# Malalignment of the occlusal surfaces of the teeth due to dental defect or neglect.

# Jaw thrusting (causing unusual speech and chewing habits).

# Excessive gum chewing or nail biting.

# Size of food bites eaten.

# Degenerative joint disease, such as osteoarthritis or organic degeneration of the articular surfaces, recurrent fibrous and/or bony ankylosis, developmental abnormality, or pathologic lesions within the TMJ

# Myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome

# Lack of overbite

Patients of TMJ often experience pain such as migraines or headaches, and consider this pain TMJ-related. There is some evidence for this in that more than 50% of people who use nighttime biofeedback to reduce nighttime clenching experience a significant reduction in migraines and headaches as well as a reduction in direct TMJ pain. While TMJ disorder is a possible cause of migraines and headaches, other causes should also be considered. E.g.

* Cervical Spondylosis

* Migraine

* Etc.


Adapted from the Wikipedia article Temporomandibular joint disorder, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki