Facial pain temporomandibular joint pain cannot be ignored

  The temporomandibular joint is the only joint of the face, and its structure and movement are among the most complex in the human body. The movements of chewing, speech, swallowing and expression in our daily life depend on the normal participation of the TMJ. TMJ disorder is a common disease in the oral cavity and has a high prevalence in the population. It is one of the most common diseases of the oral and maxillofacial region besides dental caries, periodontal disease and malocclusion. According to domestic and international statistics, the prevalence rate is 28 to 88%.  The causes of TMJ disorders are complex and related to a variety of factors. The common ones are mental factors, such as anxiety, irritability, nervousness, excitement and insomnia, etc.; occlusal factors, the examination of TMJ disorder patients often reveals symptoms such as multiple missing teeth, severe wear and tear of teeth and irregularity of tooth alignment, etc. In addition, patients often have bad habits like chewing hard food, grinding teeth at night, clenching teeth when nervous, etc., which can cause damage to the TMJ.  The clinical manifestations of TMJ disorder are diverse, mainly including pain in the muscles around the preauricular area or joints when opening and biting food, which is sometimes mistaken for toothache or trigeminal neuralgia by patients, and because the pain is not very intense, it is often overlooked and the time for early treatment is delayed. In some cases, the pain is often overlooked because the pain is not very severe, and early treatment is delayed. Some patients also have a sound such as “ka, ka” or “ka ba” when opening the mouth.  In addition, TMJ disorder is often accompanied by many other symptoms, such as tinnitus, deafness, dizziness, etc. Therefore, when you have the above symptoms and cannot find other causes, do not forget to go to the TMJ department of the dental hospital to have your TMJ checked. In some patients, long-term chronic pain can lead to central nerve sensitization, making the local area sensitive to even the smallest stimulus, feeling abnormal pain and feeling uncomfortable everywhere.