TMJ Therapy – Boston, MA
Providing Relief From Excessive Jaw Pain
Do you have trouble with severe pain in your jaw? Does it lock up or make it difficult or uncomfortable to chew or eat your favorite foods? A TMJ disorder (TMD) can be a debilitating condition to live with, and many patients who battle this problem can have difficulty determining what caused it. Fortunately, individuals with TMD can find relief with various treatment methods, but at Devonshire Dental of Boston, Botox is a safe and proven method for helping patients achieve relief from TMJ/TMD pain. To find out how TMJ therapy in Boston can help you, contact our dental office.
Why Choose Devonshire Dental of Boston for TMJ/TMD Therapy?
- Fast, Drug-Free Pain Relief with Botox
- Able to Stop Migraines & Teeth Grinding
- One of the Only Dentists to Provide Botox in Downtown Boston
What is TMJ?
Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) occurs when the temporomandibular joints (TMJ) create pain in the joint and muscles of your jaw, making it difficult to eat, chew, and even speak. Some of the reasons a person might develop TMJ include:
- Teeth grinding or clenching (Bruxism)
- Genetics
- Arthritis
- Jaw injury
What Are the Symptoms of TMJ?
If you are prone to clenching or grinding your teeth, you might never develop TMJ/TMD, but there are other symptoms that can easily determine if you have TMJ, including:
- Aching facial pain
- Lockjaw or locking of your jaw joints
- Difficulty chewing or eating
- Difficulty opening or closing your mouth
- Pain in and around your ear
- Pain in the temporomandibular joints
- General pain or tenderness in your jaw
How is TMJ Treated?
When seeking treatment for TMJ/TMD, there are many options available, but your dentist in Downtown Boston will often suggest Botox as a safe and effective form of treatment. Why? Because of its ability to quickly reduce and eliminate pain to the joint and muscle areas.
When Botox is injected, not only will it relieve the tension, but it will also keep your muscles from moving in a way that causes extreme pain. Oftentimes, patients with TMJ experience severe headaches. Botox in Downtown Boston works to help eliminate those headaches.
As a proven nonsurgical method of treatment, Botox should only be administered by a skilled and trained dental professional like Dr. Rizkallah. You’ll begin to notice improvement within a few days, and the best part is that it does not require a hospital stay. You’ll leave our dental office feeling better than when you walked in.
It is important to remember that when receiving Botox injections for your TMJ/TMD therapy, you should not rub the area after having Botox administered. This is to prevent the toxin from spreading to other areas, and you should stay upright for several hours after treatment.
BOTOX TMJ Treatment Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have questions about using BOTOX in Downtown Boston to treat TMJ disorder? This once “cosmetic” treatment has become a great solution for patients who are suffering from chronic TMJ pain. Below, we’ve answered a few questions about BOTOX for TMJ treatment that our patients have asked in the past.
How effective is BOTOX treatment for TMJ disorder?
A study conducted in 2012 looked at how effective BOTOX was at treating common TMJ symptoms, including chronic pain, jaw clicking and popping, and lockjaw. They found that 70 percent of their 26-patient sample experienced a decrease of pain and muscle tenderness and an increase of mouth opening within three months of treatment. Not only did this treatment improve many patients’ overall daily life and mental state, but they also found that it improved their family’s as well because their loved one was no longer living in pain.
What are the side-effects of using BOTOX to treat TMJ disorder?
BOTOX is a completely safe cosmetic procedure that causes very few or no side effects. Some of the most common ones that patients who receive BOTOX for TMJ therapy in Downtown Boston experience include:
- A headache
- Nausea
- Flu-like symptoms
- Redness at the injection site
- Muscle weakness
- Bruising at the injection site.
After the treatment, some patients also experience what we call a “fixed” smile that could last for several weeks due to the freezing effect of BOTOX. However, this will go away. If you have any questions after your treatment, don’t hesitate to contact our dental office so we can address them.
Is BOTOX treatment for TMJ disorder expensive?
Insurance providers rarely cover BOTOX treatment for TMJ because it’s so new and not yet approved by the FDA. However, it’s worth it to contact them directly in order to find out. The cost of your treatment will largely depend on how many BOTOX injections your treatment requires, which our team will be able to tell once you come in for an evaluation. At Devonshire Dental of Boston, we’re an in-network provider with Delta Dental Premier, Cigna, and BlueCross BlueShield, and will gladly help you find out the coverage details of your insurance plan.
Am I a good candidate for BOTOX for TMJ treatment?
If you’re experiencing daily chronic jaw pain and tension that make living with TMJ disorder hard, then you’re a great candidate for BOTOX therapy. It can also help patients who have TMD that are grinding and clenching their teeth who don’t wear their nightguard due to discomfort. The best way to learn whether BOTOX therapy can help you is to visit our dental office for a consultation.