Can orthodontic treatment cure TMJ problems?

Orthodontists and ENTs are the best placed specialists who can help treat not just the TMD but also it’s causes.

Even though traditional and conventional orthodontics involve extractions and enamel stripping, a skeletal expansion in the end maybe good enough to ensure a pain free life in the future. Orthodontics should not just seen as a dental procedure. It should be done as a skeletal repositioning procedure followed by a dental intervention to maintain the new jaw position. And this is why Neuromuscular Orthodontics is gaining a lot of traction among patients and doctors.

It’s all about the diagnosis. Extraction orthodontics have to be avoided as much as possible. The malocclusion (crowded teeth or protruded teeth) is mainly because of the lack of growth of the jaws. This could be a genetic anomaly or even a tongue posturing issue. If during the growth stage, the tongue isn’t resting on the palate, the growing tongue cannot help the palate to attain it’s growth potential of a wide and shallow arch. Hence, the jaws remain so narrow that it cannot accommodate all the teeth.

Expansion Neuromuscular orthodontics should be the answer; not Extraction “lifetime retention appliance” orthodontics.