Project Description
What is it?
A minimally invasive therapy for patients struggling with TMJ pain, face, neck and upper back muscle tension.
What is the Difference between TMJ and TMD?
TMJ is the temporomandibular joint. It is simply the abbreviation for the jaw joint.
TMD is a disorder of the temporomandibular joint. It usually presents with jaw and/or muscle pain, headaches, difficulty chewing, clicking and locking of the joint.
How Does Trigger Point Therapy Work?
Trigger points are areas of tension or muscle spasm that radiate pain. These points are often associated with pain caused by dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint or myofascial pain which originates in the muscle tissues of the face, neck and upper back. Headaches are common.
Injections to these tender muscle areas with lidocaine and botulinum toxin can help to relieve pain. The insertion of the needle into the muscle helps to break up the tension and inactivate the trigger point. Lidocaine provides anesthetic to alleviate pain instantly and botulinum toxin reduces the intensity of the muscle contraction. The trigger point injections greatly reduce chronic pain of the jaw and facial muscles.
Trigger point therapy is a conservative pain management option for patients with chronic temporomandibular disorder (TMD), headaches, or myofascial pain. The injections help to restore normal function by reducing the muscle contraction intensity. Trigger point therapy is performed by a dentist with a thorough understanding of head and neck anatomy, the jaw joint, and associated musculature and neurovascular systems.
What to Expect:
Our first appointment will be a thorough exam of the head and neck, past treatment discussion and pain history. A functional trigger point identification will be completed at that time.
A treatment plan to alleviate symptoms will be created and discussed
Patients will return to the office for conservative and relatively painless trigger point injections as needed to the face, head and neck.
Insertion of a small needle helps to break up the muscle tension and inactivate trigger points
Lidocaine provides anesthetic to alleviate pain instantly and Botox® or Xeomin® is concurrently administered to reduce the intensity of the muscle contraction for up to 3 or 4 months
Chronic pain of the jaw and facial muscles can be greatly reduced
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