Jaw Joint (TemporoMandibular Joint – TMJ) Problems
The Jaw Joint is a joint between the temporal bone of the skull and the Mandible, and is the only double-headed joint of the body.
Disorders that occur as a result of closing disorders of the lower and upper jaw teeth are therefore briefly referred to as TMJ disorders. The symptoms of the discomfort that may occur as a result of this type of closing disorders may be as follows;
1. Constant pain in the jaw joint (TMJ) area
2. Difficulty in mouth opening: The gap between the anterior lower and upper teeth, which is 35-40 mm on average, sometimes decreases to 8-9 mm.
3. Migraine headaches
4. Tinnitus, hearing loss
5. Loud noise and clicking in the jaw joints during the opening movement of the mouth,
6. Constant grinding and clenching of the teeth (Bruxism)
These symptoms appear more easily as the stress level of the person increases and may become more severe as a result of not correcting the occlusion disorder at its origin. The long-term use of protectors known as night splints, which are still widely used today, often aggravate the situation. With the T-Scan III occlusion analysis method, these types of disorders can be successfully corrected by performing occlusion analysis of the teeth.
With T-Scan Occlusion analysis, it is possible to see the amount of pressure per tooth, with the information on the location of the early contacts and the information of which one is before and which one is later:
According to the information taken from the patient’s mouth and transferred to the computer environment during the occlusion period, with the 0.1 mm thick sensors placed between the lower and upper teeth of the patient, the early contact points in the teeth that are the source of the problem are eliminated.
Below is a pre-treatment recording of a patient who could barely open his jaw after an orthodontic treatment. In the first of these recordings (Fig.1), an early contact point, which assumes 47% of the total relative pressure, is seen in the mesiobuccal and disto-buccal tubercles of tooth #37 at 1.054 seconds of occlusion. With the removal of this point, the situation returned to normal. (Fig.2)
