TMJ Treatment Kansas City

Now, for some people over time they can have a degeneration of the joint due to, maybe, arthritis. Maybe they had a car accident. Some kind of trauma where that joint could have been damaged. Also people that grind their teeth, clench their teeth at night can have some harmful affects to that joint. So by TMJ we mean the joint. A lot of people think TMJ means it's a disease. It's really not. TMD is a temporomandibular disorder, is an actual problem with that joint. And one of the things in our office that we offer to remedy that is called an NTI. And and NTI is a small device that's made in office. We make in about ten or 15 minutes. It fits over your front two teeth so that it's every easy to wear. And the idea is that, what it does it helps to prevent grinding of your teeth at night, clenching of your teeth, by keeping the back teeth separated when you try to do that. So in other words, if you bite down your back teeth will not clamp together. And if they don't clamp together the muscles don't tense up as bad. The EMA is, it's a specialized device that is utilized to assist folks that have snoring problems. Now, when the device is placed it allows the lower jaw to be brought forward so that, you know, the tongue doesn't fall back into the, into the airway, you know, and compromise the airway and cause the snoring. So with mouth guards and athletic mouth guards, you know, we, you know, it's amazing how much you'll see trauma. We see a lot of injuries that could be prevented by just simply wearing some sort of, you know, especially if it's a mouth piece that fits properly and they can still breath well with it. You know, I have a lot of basketball players who wear it and they love it. And if you've gone through braces and Mom and Dad spent money on braces and then you're an athlete, you probably want to protect your, you know, your smile.