TMJ Symptoms

There are many common symptoms that are related to TMJ syndrome. Some of these include different types of pain including headaches and migraines, facial pain, jaw pain, neck pain.

Other symptoms are not necessarily painful but they cause their own unique challenges for patients. Some of these include dizziness, a ringing in the ears, the jaw locking in the open or closed position.

Sleep disorders are also related to this disorder and will be discussed below.

TMJ Disorder

The temporomandibular joint is abbreviated to TMJ. This joint is located just in front of both ears where the skull joins the jaw bone.

This compact area has numerous soft tissues in and around the region including muscles, ligaments, tendons and nerves.

When the TMJ is misaligned excess pressure is put on these soft tissues that radiate out from the joint to many other areas of the head, face, neck and body. So, problems in these outer areas often have the TMJ Disorder as the source of the problem.

Sleep Apnea

This is a medical condition where a person stops breathing many times during the night. Mostly the person with this condition is not aware they have this problem. But they are often aware some of the symptoms which includes getting up to urinate many times during the night, as well as feeling very tired during the day.

There are potentially more serious health conditions related to sleep apnea which includes cardiovascular disease.

About 8 out of 10 people with a TMJ disorder also have sleep apnea.

Snoring Disorder

 Even though a snoring disorder is easy to detect, it is mostly the sleeping partner who is more aware of this problem than the person who snores.

What most people do not know is that many people who snore also have sleep apnea, along with the potential for one or more of the symptoms or conditions related to sleep apnea.