Dentist warned about "hidden" symptoms of jaw joint dysfunction

Ear pain, noise, congestion, and even dizziness are not always associated with ENT diseases. Similar symptoms can be caused by temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction. Nodira Sarsadskikh (Kasimova), an orthopedic dentist at the Atribyut clinic, told Izvestia about this on May 26.

According to the specialist, TMJ dysfunction often mimics diseases of the ear, throat and nose due to the anatomical proximity of the joint to the ENT organs and the general innervation of the trigeminal nerve. Patients may experience pain in the area of the external auditory canal, tinnitus or ringing in the ears, a feeling of congestion, as well as headaches and dizziness.

"The characteristic symptoms help to distinguish a joint problem from a classic ENT pathology. Among them are clicks, crunching and cracking near the ear when opening the mouth or chewing, tension of the chewing muscles, limitation of jaw mobility and increased pain during eating, talking or stress," explained the dentist.

Ear diseases, on the contrary, are more often characterized by fever, hearing loss, discharge from the ear and inflammatory changes during examination. If the symptoms are directly related to the movement of the jaw, the cause may be dental.

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The most expensive specialist services were in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Sarsadskikh emphasized that long-term treatment of "ear" symptoms without finding out their true cause can lead to chronic pain and irreversible changes. According to her, if the ENT doctor excludes inflammation and other ear diseases, the patient is recommended to be examined by a dentist specializing in TMJ dysfunction.

Computed tomography is used for diagnosis, which makes it possible to assess the bone structures of the joint, and MRI for the examination of soft tissues and the articular disc.

The expert also proposed a step-by—step examination algorithm: first, to exclude acute ENT pathology, then neurological causes, and after that to undergo a specialized diagnosis by an orthopedic dentist or orthodontist.

On May 8, Maxim Labukhin, medical director of the MIA CLINIC network, said that aligners have become one of the most popular technologies in modern orthodontics due to their aesthetics and convenience. Transparent mouth guards are almost invisible on the teeth and allow you to adjust the bite without using metal structures.