Hi Everyone and welcome or welcome back to my YouTube channel! My name is Priya Mistry and
todays video is about the differences between a TMJ Splint or Orthotic and a typical Dental
Nightguard. Do you have a custom-made mouthpiece right now? Is it a typical Dental Nightguard
or a TMJ Splint or Orthotic? Do you know what the difference is, or are you just
watching this to find out more information? To learn more and figure out what's best for you,
watch this video as we'll go through everything... and by the end of the video, I think you'll have
a clear understanding as to a typical Dental Nightguard versus a TMJ Splint or Orthotic.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm a general dentist in Portland,
Oregon and I have a practice that's dedicated to taking care of patients with TMJ disorders!
So let's get right into it! What is a typical Dental Nightguard? Typical Dental Nightguards
are made for patients who clench or grind their teeth and they serve well to protect our teeth
from the forces of clenching and grinding. When we clench or when we grind our teeth, we can generate
80 to 100 times MORE FORCE than chewing - or even more! So imagine that! Imagine how much force we
can generate by making the muscles of our head, neck, and jaw work together! We can crack teeth
with that! Enamel is harder than bone! So if we can crack that enamel to break a tooth in half,
or to fracture off a cusp - that's enormous! Most of us do clench your grind even though we may
not have an awareness of it, so having something in there to protect the teeth is so important! So
to make a typical Dental Nightguard, what your dentist will do is take molds of your upper
and lower teeth and they'll send those molds to the lab. They may or may not measure your bite
as it normally is. So they would put some material between your teeth and ask you to
bite down and take a measurement of that. So a typical dental nightguard is made out of plastic,
just like most TMJ Splints or Orthotics are. However, the big difference is how the bite
is measured in both of those. In a typical Dental Nightguard, they replicate your original bite - so
they are not changing the relationship of your upper teeth and your lower teeth,
and it's really not treating the muscles joints and ligaments. It's all about protecting the
teeth from the forces of clenching and grinding; So typical Dental Nightguards are great if you
know that you clench or grind your teeth, but you don't have any joint problems - such as clicking,
popping, cracking or locking episodes - or you don't have any pain - headaches, jaw pain, neck
pain, ear pain. If you don't have any of those things, go with the typical Dental Nightguard.
It will serve you well. A TMJ Orthotic, like a typical Dental Nightguard, also protects our teeth
from the forces of clenching and grinding. So that's great! To make a TMJ Orthotic your doctor,
your tmj doctor, or your dentist will take molds of your upper and lower teeth. So the first step
in making it is just like the first step of making a typical Dental Nightguard. Then this
is where the big difference comes in. The next step is how the bite is measured. so we measure
where your muscles are the most relaxed and where your joints are aligned and we measure that bite
differently. So we don't put material between your teeth and just ask you to bite. We actually find
where the jaw "wants to be" in three-dimensional space and we have a very specific way of figuring
that out that is precise down to tenths of a millimeter! So we're very specific in how
we figure that out and we measure where the jaw "wants to be" and we build the Orthotic to that
position. When our TMJ Orthotics are worn, we are not keeping the upper and lower teeth in the exact
same relationship with each other. Instead, we're treating the muscles and joints and ligaments;
and we're putting all those structures in their optimal position so that the muscles can
finally relax and become functional rather than dysfunctional and the joints get a chance to heal.
So we commonly get asked if this permanently moves your teeth or moves your jaw, and the answer is
NO! One way to think about a Dental Nightguard is to think about it like a pair of reading glasses;
like you can just go to Walgreens and pick up a pair of reading glasses; while a TMJ Orthotic
is like prescription glasses. You go in, your prescription gets measured by an optometrist,
and you get those glasses made specifically for you. So yes, both glasses are worn the same way
they can look very similar, but it's all about the prescription that's built into them that makes
all the difference for the person wearing them. So same thing - a TMJ Orthotic and a
Dental Nightguard might look similar; they might look like pieces of plastic that are worn over
the teeth, but it's all about the prescription that's built into a TMJ Orthotic. So it's not just
protecting teeth from the forces of clenching and grinding; it's also treating the muscles,
joints, and ligaments. We find that when the muscles of the head, neck, and jaw are put in
their relaxed position for a significant amount of time - so seven or eight consecutive hours
when this is worn overnight, then good things tend to happen and we see headaches, jaw pain,
ear pain, vertigo, stuffy ears, neck pain - all of that drastically decrease usually within a month.
And same thing with our Orthotics - when we align the joints properly, we see those
joints quiet down if they're making a lot of noises and we get people
unlocked if their jaws are locked. And so we we do that with our own myofascial release and our jaw
manipulation, so there's more to it but this video is just about explaining the difference between a
typical Dental Nightguard and a TMJ Orthotic. So that my friends is it! If you found this helpful,
if you liked what you heard - click "Like" below, Subscribe to my channel, do all the things... and
as always, comment ask questions! I'm happy to answer them and I'm here for you guys.
And remember, you can never have TMI about TMJ!