TMJ is a painful condition that occurs when your jaw becomes misaligned. It can cause you to experience a variety of painful symptoms throughout your face, jaw, neck, back and shoulders. For many individuals, these symptoms can be debilitating, impacting their life on a daily basis.
Fortunately, you don’t have to live with chronic TMJ pain any longer. Dr. Heather Fleschler has an extensive background in neuromuscular dentistry, the dental field focused on restoring proper alignment and function to the joints, muscles and ligaments in your jaw. With this training, she can effectively diagnose and treat your condition to restore a properly aligned jaw and eliminate your painful symptoms once and for all.
Your TMJ treatment will be conducted in two phases. The first phase of treatment is performed to provide relief from the painful symptoms you’re experiencing. This can be accomplished using:
- Over-the-counter NSAID pain relievers such as ibuprofen
- Moist heat
- Eating a diet of primarily soft foods in order to reduce the strain on your jaw muscles
- Transcutaneous Electrical Neural Stimulation (TENS) therapy to relax the muscles in your head, jaw and neck
- Muscle exercises
- Muscle relaxants
Once your pain has been alleviated, you will move onto the second phase of your treatment, which will provide you with long term relief from TMJ by correcting the cause of your misaligned bite. Depending on the specifics of your bite alignment issue, Dr. Fleschler may recommend one of the following treatments:
- Neuromuscular orthotic device
- Full bite reconstruction
- Occlusal equilibration
- Neuromuscular orthodontics
There’s no reason to endure painful TMJ symptoms any longer. Dr. Fleschler can recommend a customized TMJ treatment plan to restore a properly aligned bite and provide the relief you need.
Please contact Dr. Heather Fleschler using the form on this page or call 713-660-6500 today to schedule your TMJ evaluation. We serve patients in the Houston, Texas areas of West University, Bellaire, River Oaks and Meyerland.