TMD and Tooth Brushing Difficulties

For you to have healthy teeth, you need to maintain a good oral hygiene and brush the teeth thoroughly. But people living with TMD (temporomandibular disorders) are not always successful at inculcating proper dental care and thorough brushing. With sore jaws which make it difficult for you to open your mouth, flossing or brushing your teeth will be a challenge.

A lot of people with TMJ pain are always terrified of having to brush their teeth, especially if the symptoms are not carefully controlled. Brushing the teeth may cause extreme ear pain, headaches, the popping of the jaw, etc. Consequently, this could lead to poor oral hygiene with tooth decay or gum disease the inevitable result.

.

Brushing and Flossing Complications if you have TMD?

A lot of patients with TMD brush or floss incorrectly, and may not even realize it. The following are some of the problems we have dealt with:

• Brushing for a very short time: Normally, it takes a couple of minutes to brush your teeth, twice each day. Justifiably, to anyone with TMD, brushing that long will seem like forever. As a matter of fact, people who have healthy jaws don’t brush their teeth that long.
• Sawing your toothbrush back and forth rapidly: Lots of people brush their teeth by swiping the toothbrush along their teeth just to avoid opening their mouths. But this is wrong. The correct brushing technique consists of using soft circular motions on the surface of each tooth.
• Avoiding flossing: People with TMD find it difficult to floss since it will involve opening their mouths wide for a long time, while at the same time ensuring that each tooth and the gaps in-between are treated properly.

How to brush the teeth if you have TMJ pain or jaw pain?

Whether you like it or not, it is important for you to brush and floss your mouth regularly. Given this, we go out of our way to developing simple methods by which our temporomandibular disorder patients can floss or brush without difficulty. If you want to effectively manage TMJ while keeping your oral health in excellent shape, then you need to take heed to the following instructions:

• Make use of children’s toothbrush as this will help you not to open your mouth too wide.
• For more effective cleaning of your teeth, why not consider using an electric toothbrush.
• Imbibe the habit of flossing every day with either floss holders or dental picks which are user-friendly
• If you notice that your jaw is hurting, then take a breather.

You can get in touch with our office at any time when you feel the time is right for you to undergo a dental treatment of TMJ disorder or have a regular dental checkup.