Hi my wonderful TMJoiners! I’m Priya Mistry the TMJ doc and today I’m going
to talk about WHY TMJ Disorders are much more common in women than in men.
That being said, if you’re looking for more information on TMJ Disorders for yourself or
for a loved one, then this is the YouTube channel for you. Be sure to hit that Subscribe button and
the little notification bell right next to it to be notified for when my next videos will come out.
I post a new informational video every Friday for people who are suffering from TMJ Disorders or for
people who are just looking for more information. Please be sure to check out my TikTok - I'm new
to TikTok - and my other social media accounts which I've linked below!
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a general dentist with a practice in Vancouver,
Washington where we are dedicated to taking care of patients with TMJ disorders.
So let’s get right into it! Why IS TMJD more common in women?
Well, my friends, women suffer from TMJD much more than men do because of... HORMONES! Lucky
us! The two hormones that are commonly linked with TMJ Disorders are Relaxin and Beta-Estrodiol.
What are these hormones, you ask? Well, let's start with Beta-Estradiol,
which I'll refer to as Estradiol for simplicity’s sake. Estradiol is found in BOTH men and women
and is function is vast and varied. In women,
it helps in the development of breasts and hips. In men, it protects sperm in men, and basically
it does a bunch of other things as well. Estradiol ALSO has a profound impact
on skeletal bone density, my friends! And the jaw bone is, in fact, a skeletal bone. So the level
of estradiol in our bodies can have an impact on the jaw bone, and therefore the jaw joint.
Let’s move on to Relaxin. Relaxin is ALSO found in men and women, but in much higher levels
for us women. Relaxin is named really well because it “relaxes” ligaments. That is its
main function. So that can be really helpful when it comes to bearing children. [Relaxin]
gets everything relaxed down there so that our hips stretch and we can actually bear children.
However, Relaxin can have a negative impact on the jaw joint. It can loosen up the ligaments so
much that the little disc of cartilaginous tissue - the articular disc - can come out of alignment.
When it comes in and out of alignment, it will click and pop and make some noises.
That's not ideal, but when it comes completely out of alignment that clicking and popping will stop
and the jaw is actually locked closed. Not a fun condition; not a fun thing to go through! For more
information on this painful condition, please watch the videos “Jaw Locked Closed” Parts 1
and 2 - which I've linked above - and also the video "How I Treat the Locked Jaw (Jaw Locked
Closed). That's a newer one and I walk through how I treat that condition for my patients,
so check those out if you have some time. Last little point here is that both hormones - both
Beta-Estradiol and Relaxin - have been linked to degeneration within the jaw joints which is
not great AND again, both of these hormones are found in MUCH higher levels in women
than in men. So the vast majority of my patients at my private, TMJD-only practice are women. I
have been doing this TMJD work for about four years now. In the last four years, I've seen
hundreds of jaws that are locked closed. Only four of these, up to date, have been men. So you
can imagine those numbers there. So really, this is a "woman's problem" most of the time. It can
affect men and if it does affect men, it's usually because these men have Ehler's Danlos Syndrome,
or some sort of connective tissue disorder, or hypermobililty disorder. So I hope this
video really helps clarify why TMJD problems are much more common in women than in men.
So that’s really it my friends. I hope you like what you heard or learned something new,
and if so, click “Like” below, Subscribe to my channel, do all the things! Questions and
comments are welcome. And remember, my friends, you can never have TMI about TMJ! Thank you!