Bad bite/tmj

by Marcy

I have suffered wth TMD for a very long time. I am a horrible clencher. I do wear a nite guard.
About 10 years ago I had a root canal on the left lower molar (last one). About 4 years ago it had to be retreated.
Over the last 2 months I have had horrible pain on that side of my mouth. I have been to my dentist 2 times and my endodentist once. Both of which say there is absolutely nothing concerning on the X-ray.
My endodentist is adamant it is my bite. He stated that I am only biting on two teeth on my left side. One of which is my last molar. Is it true it would cause this pain? Especially after all this time?
I'm wearing my night guard at night a and it is still hurting.
Help!

Marcy

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starstarstarstarstar 		tmd splint
by: Anonymous

I had a $1500 splint made years ago that i never wore because i thought my tmj was far beyond what a splint could do. It doesnt fit well now so it needs some adjustment. Could you email me? I would love that :/ thanks. My email is hove131@gmail.com

Thanks again
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starstarstarstarstar 		Tooth pain with TMJ
by: Dr. Spainhower

Hello Marcy,

Yes, it is true that your jaw/tooth pain could be coming from hitting on that tooth too hard. There are two approaches to treat this....

#1 Simply shaving off the contact areas off of the two hitting teeth by finding the contacts with marking paper.

#2 Doing TMJ splint therapy to erase muscle engrams to find the true or correct position of the jaw as it hinges in the TMJ's so that the teeth can correctly be evaluated and then adjusted by equilibration.

The first may work just fine, but you run the risk of shaving off too much or even the wrong part of the tooth. The second way is expensive and takes about 6-12 weeks to do correctly.

Hope this helps.
Dr. Spainhower

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