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Ideally, your jaw is in its most relaxed position when at rest, but if your bite isn’t correctly aligned, it can cause problems with your jaw muscles and jaw joints, creating a painful condition called TMJ. Common signs of TMJ include clenching and grinding your teeth (bruxism), jaw pain, chronic headaches, and neck, shoulder and back pain. In the worst case, TMJ can cause gum recession or will wear or crack teeth. Neuromuscular dentistry is a way to help treat these problems, reducing pain and allowing your jaw to rest in the proper position.

One method of applying neuromuscular dentistry to TMJ problems is by using Transcutaneous Electrical Neural Stimulation (TENS) and which uses a low-frequency electrical current to relax jaw muscles, allowing your dentist to realign your bite correctly. Another technique is to use a custom-made nightguard that is fitted over your teeth and which prevents bruxism, holding your jaw in a more relaxed position. Botox can help to relax tense jaw muscles so that the jaw can rest in the correct position more easily. If your teeth are already damaged due to bruxism, we can use restorative treatments such as dental crowns to cover worn and cracked teeth, or dental implants to replace teeth lost to bruxism.