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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Does The Jaw Clenching Habit Aggravate The TMJ Pains And Current Orthodontic Treatment ?

when i was 12 years old a dentist had put braces on my lower jaw only ( she had extracted 2 teeth for it: premolars) and had pushed it back by atleast 1 1/2 inches and my lower and upper teeth would not touch. till the age of 20, almost, i had the lower teeth relapsing and my anterior teeth were still malaligned i e my lower teeth was not straight and was inclined towards insides. at the age of 20 i went to an orthodontist and he suggested me to get braces to get properly aligned teeth. For the purpose he brought out my upper teeth forward by 4 mm and then he applied braces on my lower teeth and pushed it back a little so that the gap created by my extracted teeth from earlier braces treatment could be cured and the gap between my upper teeth and lower had increased upto 5 mm. and now i have suddenly started having tmj pains. the doctor says that i am having this pain due to my predisposition to tmj as i had had malaligned teeth since long. i want to know if the current orthodontic treatment is causing my tmj pain or is it because of the earlier one . moreover i even want to know if i should continue with the braces as in should i wait till the time my orthodontist aligns my teeth?i think i even have the habbit of jaw clenching . is this aggravating my problem
Wed, 18 Jan 2012
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Dentist, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 's  Response
hello,
your problem seems to be a multifactorial one. Long standing malaligned teeth can definitely lead to TMJ pain. Also there is quite a possibility that the current ortho treatment might be causing some change in your occlusion and that in turn resulting in stress on your joint. Even your habit of jaw clenching is many a times cause of muscle faigue which can appear in form of TMJ pain. So i will suggest you to visit some Oral surgeon or a Prosthodontist along with all your previous treatment records....
take care...
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Does The Jaw Clenching Habit Aggravate The TMJ Pains And Current Orthodontic Treatment ?

hello, your problem seems to be a multifactorial one. Long standing malaligned teeth can definitely lead to TMJ pain. Also there is quite a possibility that the current ortho treatment might be causing some change in your occlusion and that in turn resulting in stress on your joint. Even your habit of jaw clenching is many a times cause of muscle faigue which can appear in form of TMJ pain. So i will suggest you to visit some Oral surgeon or a Prosthodontist along with all your previous treatment records.... take care...