Experience Lasting Relief with Neuromuscular Dentistry Neuromuscular dentistry provides a holistic, comprehensive treatment for facial pain issues, TMJ disorders, and body postural issues. While conventional dentists will only look at your teeth and gums, neuromuscular dentists identify and restore all of the pieces that make up one system—the jaw joints (TMJ), muscles, teeth, and nerves work to get function back to the entire craniofacial system supporting natural chewing, breathing, and swallowing. How Does Neuromuscular Imbalance Impact the Body? A misaligned jaw, misaligned bite (malocclusion), and chronic stress can pull your jaw out of alignment. When this happens the entire skull will sit unevenly on the cervical spine. This will put strain on surrounding muscles, leading to muscle spasms and radiated pain through the neck, shoulders, back, hips and legs. Neuromuscular dental therapies are utilized to reposition the jaws to a more optimal position and correct the bite. This can help alleviate muscle effort and strain leading to better body posture. The Consequences of Chewing with the Same Side Favoring one side while chewing may lead to an asymmetrical bite and an oblique occlusal plane. While chewing, this produces pressure in the chewing muscles on that side while putting strain on larger postural muscles such as the trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscle that link the jaw to the neck and vertebral spine. This can easily lead to poor postural habits, back pain, sciatica, and leg fatigue when viewed as patterns and causes over time. Common Signs and Symptoms of Neuromuscular Disorders Watch for the following symptoms: • Jaw pain or TMJ pain • Clicking or popping when you use your jaw • Inability to open mouth fully • Headaches or migraines • Ringing in the ears or tinnitus • Inability to hold your head or shoulders up • Numbness or tingling in your fingers • Back pain (in particular L4, L5) • Sciatica or leg pain • Generalized muscle stiffness Smile and Glow Diagnostic Process for Facial Pain Using a multi-specialty approach the Smile and Glow Team invokes a systematic diagnostic process to determine the limitations associated with TMJ or other neuromuscular disorders: • Thorough history, posture, and sleeping position assessment. • Full mouth and extra-oral clinical examination. • Imagery: OPG, Lateral Ceph, CBCT, TMJ open/close views, airway scans, MRI, whole-body scans. • Sleep analysis either through home sleep test or polysomnogram. • XSens (external ground surface maxillary skull trackers), ULF-TENS, jaw tracking, MAT Scan and T-Scan, our digital device for measuring bite force. Why We Use T-Scan T-Scan provides a digital map of your bite to evaluate occlusal imbalances that may be causing you pain or long-term dysfunction. The Role of TENS Therapy in Neuromuscular Dentistry Ultra Low-Frequency Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (ULF-TENS) helps relax overworked jaw muscles and facilitates healing. TENS has been shown to: • Release muscle tightness. • Block pain signals from reaching the brain. • Increase endorphins, the body’s natural pain-relievers. • Increase blood flow to accelerate recovery. Once the muscle is relaxed we can take an accurate record of your true jaw position and build you a customized treatment plan. Neuromuscular Dentistry is effective for: • Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD) • Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) • Cranio-Cervical-Mandibular Disorders (CCMD) Holistic Treatment Options at Smile and Glow After evaluation and diagnosis our neuromuscular orthodontist might recommend: • mandibular orthopedic repositioning appliance (MORA) • orthotic splints, TENS therapy, or myomonitor therapy (J5 Myomonitor) • Restorative or orthodontic correction for stable occlusion. And we will work with other specialists such as ENT, pulmonologists, physiotherapists, and psychologists, if necessary. Start Accessing Treatment Early Around age 7 would be optimal, but anyone who has had chronic signs and symptoms (jaw pain, facial tension, neck stiffness, or shoulder or back stiffness) should be evaluated at the first sign of any problems to avoid worsening of symptoms.