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Your jaw joints play a central role in every bite and word you speak. When they become inflamed, we provide comprehensive evaluations and conservative therapy to restore comfortable function and get you out of pain.
Finding the right solution for facial pain requires understanding exactly what is causing it. We evaluate your joint health, muscle function, and bite alignment to build a personalized therapy plan. We help you by:
Source of Pain | Common Symptoms | How We Evaluate It |
|---|---|---|
Muscle-Based | Dull, aching pain in the cheeks or temples, usually worse in the morning | Palpating the chewing muscles to identify tenderness and tension |
Joint-Based | Sharp pain right at the jaw hinge, accompanied by clicking or locking | Listening to the joint during movement and reviewing 3D CBCT imaging |
We review your symptoms, medical history, and daily habits like teeth grinding.
We evaluate your jaw movement and gently palpate your facial muscles to locate tension.
We take high-resolution 3D imaging to look closely at the condition of your jaw joints.
We present a conservative, step-by-step management plan designed to relieve your specific symptoms.
When Dr. Mohammad Hammoud evaluates jaw pain, he images the joints on our in-house CBCT rather than referring you out for a scan and waiting two weeks on a report. We do not rush into aggressive treatments. Most TMJ disorders improve with reversible therapies like custom splints and muscle relaxation, which is why we start there rather than with anything that changes your teeth.
Some patients experience significant relief from muscle tension within a few weeks of wearing a custom splint, while joint inflammation may take several months of conservative management to fully calm down.
It is highly unlikely. The vast majority of TMJ disorders are successfully managed with non-surgical therapies. Surgery is considered an absolute last resort.
Yes. High stress often leads to unconscious jaw clenching and teeth grinding, which exhausts your chewing muscles and strains your jaw joints.
If the sound is caused by a displaced disc, it may never completely go away. What we aim for is getting the pain out of it and your range of motion back, which is achievable far more often than silencing the joint is.
If jaw pain, tension, or locking is making it difficult to eat, speak, or sleep comfortably, contact our Dearborn team today to schedule your comprehensive TMJ evaluation.
Reviewed by Dr. Mohammad Hammoud, DMD – 313 Dental, Dearborn, MI
