Posted by Kelly Marie Richard on December 02, 2003 at 15:21:14:
Here is an eye opener for all those suffering with TMJ and confused about splint therapy...
First I want to make it clear that splint therapy is Phase One of the Correct treatment for TMJ. However, it must be done correctly to work and there are 3 reasons why I beleive that alot of dental professionals are not doing splint therapy correctly and patients are failing to benefit from it.
First, there are those dentists that decided to get into TMJ treatment for the money, let's face it they make a fortune off TMJ treatments, it's very expensive. So they take a few courses at LVI and open up shop as TMJ dentists...the only problem is that they really don't have a solid understanding of what is involved in successful splint therapy or truly understand TMJ so they fail to help the patient in any way, but it doesn't matter because they still got paid and they will continue to as long as desperate patients suffering with TMJ exist. So the patient is left still suffering and has lost alot of money and now is angry and thinks splint therapy is a load of crap and turns away from this treatment, which is the correct treatment, in favor of useless therapies that fail to address the true cause of their suffering. Had they had splint therapy with someone who actually knew what he or she was doing, the patient would have benefited, of that I have no doubt. Another reason why splint therapy fails to help patients is because patients don't understand what it is doing for them and therefore fail to wear the splint fulltime, thinking it's something they can wear when they feel like and take out whenever they want. It's called a splint for a reason, look the meaning up if you don't fully understand it, the splint is serving a very important function in the treatment of TMJ, it's repositioning the lower jaw to the correct position and supporting it there to prevent further damage to the TMJ's, to allow for proper jaw and TMJ function and to hold the lower jaw in the correct position to allow the TMJ's to heal, it is the equivalent of wearing a cast on ones leg for a broken leg. If we were to take the cast on and off a broken leg then the leg would not heal or it would heal incorrectly and the case treatment for the broken leg would be unsuccessful. The splint must be worn full time or in conjuction with a Bionator at night in order for the treatment to be successful. Also the lower jaw must be positioned correctly and the practitioner must be willing to make a new splint if the one he has made is not relieving your symptoms properly. It's a process, not a quick fix, the goal of splint therapy is to find a splint that relieves you symptoms long-term. Another thing people do wrong is that they think that once they are done splint therapy that they can just stop wearing it and continue on and you can't. You must continue to wear the splint fulltime until you complete phase 2 of the treatment, which addresses your bite. For 3 basic reasons you now have to rebuild your bite, whether with orthodontic treatment and reconstuctive or just reconstuctive. First is that your bite was the cause of your TMJ and now must be adjusted to properly support a healthy jaw and therefore joint position, second, even if your bite wasn't the cause your teeth have very likely been worn down and damaged from the dislocation of your TMJ's so your bite must be rebuild to properly support your correct jaw position and keep your TMJ's healthy and 3rd the chances of your ligaments healing or regrowing the exact same length, exactly how they were prior to an injury is very unlikely so your bite now has to be adjusted to support your jaw in the correct position to support the TMJ's in their newly healed position with their newly healed ligaments. Your bite must be exact or a TMJ injury will reoccur because your bite fails to properly support your correct and healthy jaw position. The last reason why splint therapy fails is much more sinister...I believe that there are actually dental professionals out there that intentional fail to treat patients with splint therapy correctly to support research that takes to focus of TMJ off dental causes, because they want to keep the patient in the sick and in the system so that they can make more money off of them or simply to continue this cloak of confusion that hangs over TMJ to continue the cover up of the dental community causing TMJ and not wanting to take responsibility for it. The more they point away from dental factors and patients are chasing non-dental treatments, the easier it is for them to keep their secret.
Splint therapy does work and in fact is the only sure way to cure a TMJ condition, at least part of the correct treatment towards a cure, and anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant, confused or outright lying.