Snap
PopCrackle Gum chewers, teeth grinders and contact
by Courtney Houston
photography by Joshua Curry
Snap, crackle, pop: not only the sound of your favorite
cereal, but quite possibly the sound coming from
your jaw? TMJ, short for temporomandibular
joint disorder, has become a common diagnosis
for many patients across America. TMJ
disorder, also referred to as TMD (Temporomandibular
Disorder), can be a bite imbalance involving the jaw
joint as well as the associated muscles and teeth.
Dr. Michael Kuzma, D.D.S. of Kuzma Advanced
Dentistry says, “The bite imbalances can be likened to
having a pebble in your shoe. If you continue to walk
with that imbalance, the muscles and joints of your knee,
hip and back would soon be affected. This is also what
is happening when you have imbalances in your bite; signs
and symptoms will soon be present.”
Applied kinesiology chiropractor, Dr. Bill Sisson, approaches his
diagnosis holistically.
“The main thing that I look at is the balance of the musculature that
makes the jaw joint function,” Sisson says.
His first step is to observe patients opening and closing their jaws
— normally and then slowly — recording deviations. Then he places
a stethoscope on the jaw joint and asks patients to open their jaws and
move them around so that he can listen for the subtle clicks during the
very last phase of opening.
“That tells me a little bit about what’s going on with the disk that
buffers the lower part of the jaw from the upper part,” Sisson explains.
The focus of the third step is physiognomy.
“A lot of times you can see these imbalances. That tells me a lot
about whether the problem’s been developing over time,” Sisson says.
“That then leads back to the possibility of an imbalance in the cranium
health & wellness
47
sports players may share something in common
if they suffer from TMJ, a bite imbalance that
may cause simple sound effects or more serious
symptoms, like migraine headaches. Unless TMJ
or TMD is diagnosed and treated the long-term
effects could be painfully debilitating.
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