TMJ Awareness Month

November is TMJ Awareness Month, which is a time dedicated to helping make more people familiar with TMJ and TMD. If you don’t know, TMJ stands for temporomandibular joint, which is the ball and socket joint that attaches the lower jaw to the base of the skull. If you place your fingers on the back of your jaw near your ear and open your mouth, you can feel the temporomandibular joint move. At TMD & Sleep Apnea Clinic, we are happy to provide life-changing treatment to patients who are suffering from TMD. TMD stands for temporomandibular joint disorder, which describes the symptoms resulting from conditions that affect the TMJ.

Awareness Can Help Bring Diagnosis

Unfortunately, there are many people who suffer for years with TMD and are misdiagnosed or never receive a diagnosis at all. Many symptoms of TMD are similar to the symptoms of other medical conditions. For example, two of the symptoms of TMD are headaches and ear pain. Many people look to medical professionals, thinking they have allergies or an ear infection. Unfortunately, the treatment is often unsuccessful, and patients continue to experience symptoms. The longer patients are misdiagnosed or do not receive a treatment plan, the faster their condition will continue to deteriorate. As the condition progresses with no medical intervention, patients typically begin to experience an increase in symptoms.

We Can Help

While it can be difficult to know what caused your TMD symptoms to develop, we can help provide a diagnosis and create a treatment plan to bring you relief. If you or a loved one might be suffering from TMD, be sure to visit our website to take the TMD quiz. This short quiz can help determine your TMD risk level. The quiz can be found here: TMD Quiz

If you are located in the Auburn & Silverdale, WA area and are interested in learning more about how we can treat you or a loved one for TMD, be sure to contact our office to schedule an appointment. We are here to help you!