When feasting, yawning, and laughing, some people may suddenly have a phenomenon of not being able to open their mouths, that is, what is often referred to as "jaw dropping".
In fact, this is a type of oral joint disease - temporomandibular joint disorder, which in addition to causing joint snapping, can also cause pain in the surrounding muscles and even the appearance of "big and small faces" when taking pictures.
Life Times interviews experts to tell you why the temporomandibular joint is out of order and how to avoid it from malfunctioning.
Experts interviewed
Li Yaochun, the physical therapist in charge of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University
Cai Zhuoying, attending physician of the Department of Oral Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine
70% of people have experienced a "jaw drop"
The full name of "temporomandibular disorders" is Temporomandibular disorders, abbreviated as TMD, which is not a single disease, but a general term for a group of diseases.
Temporomandibular joint disorders are more common in young and middle-aged women aged 20~40, and adolescent patients are not uncommon. According to statistics, about 70% of people experience symptoms or signs related to temporomandibular joint disorder at least once in their lifetime.
The temporomandibular joint is located about 1 cm in front of the tragus. When you touch your hand from the tragus to the front and down a little bit and open and close your mouth at the same time, when you touch a movable joint, it is the location of the temporomandibular joint, which is also the only part of our head and face that can move.
Chewing, swallowing, speaking, and making facial expressions, all daily activities that require the jaw are related to the temporomandibular joint.
When temporomandibular joint disorders are suffered, a variety of local symptoms may occur:
- Shoulder and neck: symptoms related to cervical spondylosis, such as immobility or stiffness, pain, soreness, and fatigue, may occur;
- Head: mainly manifested as headache, such as pain in the forehead, temples, and scalp area, as well as migraine, reflex pain and other symptoms;
- Oral: tenderness, trismus, teeth grinding, loose teeth, etc. may occur;
- Ears: Ear pain, tinnitus, earplugs and other symptoms may occur, eyes may present with pain behind the eyes, blurred vision, etc.;
- Throat: There will be swallowing disorders, changes in the voice of speech, throat discomfort, etc.
In addition to the above common symptoms, dizziness, sleep disturbances, anxiety, depression, crooked chin, large and small faces, etc., may also occur.
Good chin, why is it suddenly stuck?
Under normal circumstances, the opening degree of people's mouth is about 35~55 mm, while the opening of patients with temporomandibular joint disorder is usually < 25 mm, and it is often accompanied by pain during active activity and passive stretching.
The etiology of the disease is not fully elucidated and may be related to a variety of factors:
Chewing skin disorder
Trauma, mental stress, cold irritation, night grinding, etc., can cause direct damage to the masticatory muscles.
Excessive movement of the masticatory muscles can also occur in conditions that require a large mouth opening for a long time, such as eating or dental treatment.
Structural disorders of the joints
It is often associated with abnormal stress, such as biting a hard object, sudden excessive mouth opening, trauma, etc., which causes the condyle to move rapidly or excessively, resulting in disc displacement.
arthritis
Injury, inflammation of adjacent tissues of the joint, displacement of the disc, etc., lead to temporomandibular joint synovitis.
Osteoarthropathy
Factors such as injury, inflammation, displacement of the articular disc, continuous abnormal pressure on the joint, biting of hard objects, trauma and other factors can lead to the destruction of the cartilage on the joint surface and the appearance of osteoarthropathy.
In addition to the joints themselves, the temporomandibular joint is also closely related to other diseases of the body. Cervical spondylosis, scoliosis, and even certain diseases of the lower extremities may also be secondary to temporomandibular joint dysfunction.
In life, there are 5 steps to roughly determine whether there is temporomandibular joint dysfunction:
- Pain: Whether the pain involves the head and face, especially in front of the ears, temples, cheeks, etc.
- Listening: Popping when opening or closing the mouth, such as talking or eating.
- Touching: Place the tips of the index finger and middle finger on the temporomandibular joints on both sides, and open and close the mouth at the same time to check whether the asymmetrical movement of the joints on both sides (asymmetrical range of motion, joint protrusion, etc.) or sudden bounce is felt.
- Plug: Try to insert the index, middle, and ring fingers side by side between the open teeth, if you can't put the three fingers in, it indicates that the mouth opening is restricted.
- Look: Look in the mirror to see if the chin is tilted to one side during the opening of the mouth, or to one side first, and then to the other side.
The presence of any of the above conditions indicates that you may have a temporomandibular joint disorder.
Do 8 points to prevent temporomandibular joint failure
In order to avoid the occurrence of temporomandibular joint disorders, the following precautions should be done in life:
1. Avoid eating foods that require excessive mouth opening to chew, such as not opening your mouth to bite apples, buns, hamburgers, chicken legs, watermelon, etc.
2. Avoid eating too hard food, such as avoiding walnuts, peanuts, melon seed shells, etc., less biting sugarcane, and not eating uncooked lean meat, raw rice, etc.
3. Avoid eating excessive amounts of resilient foods, such as beef, beef tendon, tripe, duck gizzards, gluten, etc.
4. Avoid eating foods that need to be chewed repeatedly, such as chewing gum, QQ candy, glutinous rice cakes, etc.
5. Avoid opening your mouth wide for a long time, such as when receiving dental and oral treatment, if the treatment time is long, you can close your mouth and rest for a period of time, reduce the time of singing with your mouth wide open, and yawn with your tongue against the palate to avoid opening your mouth wide.
6. Avoid chewing on one side and chew alternately on both sides as much as possible.
7. Local hot compress, avoid pressing the joints with one finger, and recommend neurology when night grinding is severe.
8. If there is misalignment and tooth loss, repair the missing tooth as soon as possible, and carry out orthodontic alignment of the dentition when the joint symptoms are not obvious and the occlusion is basically stable, so as to improve the occlusal relationship.
The treatment of temporomandibular joint disorders emphasizes two principles – multidisciplinary and eclectic treatment. The disciplines involved include stomatology, psychology and psychiatry, pain, neurology, rehabilitation and other related specialties.
- The first gradient is conservative therapy (physiotherapy, manipulation, exercise, occlusal splint therapy, intra-articular injection);
- The second gradient is minimally invasive surgical treatment, i.e., arthroscopic surgery;
- The third gradient is open surgical treatment (e.g., disc anchoring, joint replacement, etc.).
Conservative treatment is usually recommended first, and surgery is considered if it is ineffective. ▲
Editor of this issue: Zhang Yu
Copyright Notice: This article is the original of "Life Times" and is not reproduced without authorization.