Important To Know - What Causes TMJ?

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction or TMJ syndrome is a term that means acute inflammation of the tempormandibular joint. This is the joint that links the lower portion of the jaw right to the skull. You may often wonder, what causes TMJ?

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Or what are the risk factors? Well, TMJ may be caused by a number of different reasons which might include a jaw blow or a tooth which is taking a lot of pain to get fitted properly. The extreme stress that is caused due to the clenching of the jaw or that of the grinding of teeth is also one of the reasons of TMJ. The injury that may be caused to the TMJ can be in any form and can also cause many problems with the joint. It is not only receiving a blow to the jaw but also to the ear that might become the cause of TMJ and might eventually lead the person to loose their power of hearing. Often at this time the person would be consulting a doctor who would be seeing to the hearing problem, but then many fail to diagnose that the real problem lies with the injury that has been caused to the joint. Sometimes the injury can also be caused elsewhere, like that on the neck by that of a whiplash and can lead the muscles to put even more strain on the TMJ.

Then there is malocclusion in which the teeth do not seem to get fitted properly and it can also cause the teeth to wear out. The dentures which do not fit properly might even result the bite to get misaligned and that would result in further stress on TJM. Further the chewing habit also leads to extreme strain in that of TMJ. The muscle tension in this case as well as the muscle pain can be regarded as symptoms of TMJ. You must also note that the problem can get worse from the TMJ.

The third cause of TMJ can obviously be grinding, clenching and chewing. The amount of pressure that you put on tightening your jaw muscles can lead to the further strain on TMJ. This jaw is mostly used by the human body and if it is continuously pressurized then it might lead to inflammation. In this the jaw muscle might also get inflamed and the nearby areas are also likely to get affected. Both the grinding and clenching problems are symptoms of TMJ and can cause severe headache. So now you know the risk factors and what causes TMJ, and hopefully these will enlighten you and make you aware of how to take care of yourself.