Our jaws are more delicate than we like to think. With all the moving parts and delicate structures that make up the TMJ (temporomandibular joint, or jaw joint), it’s prone to problems and discomfort. Add the fragile framework to the stress we experience each day, and they become a recipe for disaster.

When we’re anxious, that anxiety has to find an outlet. Many of us end up clenching our muscles, typically without realizing what we’re doing. This may happen during the day, or during sleep. The end result is a sore, exhausted jaw, and potentially damaged jaw tissues.

If your jaw is in pain, it’s time to seek relief. Daily life isn’t as satisfying when you don’t feel quite like yourself. Typically simple activities like chewing and speaking may become difficult, and you’ll likely feel jaw muscle strain even when at rest. What’s the solution? That depends on the source of your pain. Dr. Robert Scotto offers TMJ treatment for patients fed up with their troublesome jaws.

What is Temporomandibular Joint Disorder?

Referred to as either TMJ or TMD, a jaw disorder is an ongoing problem with your jaw’s function and structure. It may be caused by a wide variety of problems, from your occlusion (the way your upper and lower jaws fit together) to chronic bruxism (teeth grinding) to physical damage to the jaw joint. But no matter the cause, the result will be poor jaw function and ongoing discomfort.

Schenectady TMJ Treatment

Our team is ready to help get your jaw back to normal. This may be accomplished in a few different ways:

Custom TMJ splint - Depending on the source of the problem, a custom mouth guard may be appropriate. This guard will help immobilize the lower jaw, preventing grinding and other harmful movements. It is worn at night.

Botox therapeutic - Botox brings welcome relief to patients who have struggled with jaw pain and found other treatment options ineffective. Injections at the jaw muscles will help relax the area, and prevent the muscles from working too hard. Your jaw will still function normally, but it won’t overdo it.

If you have any questions about your TMJ or your jaw pain, please, don’t hesitate to contact us. We look forward to helping you get back to life as usual.

Schenectady TMJ Treatment | Schenectady TMJ Pain | Jaw Pain Schenectady

Are you waking up to an aching jaw and dull headaches? Do you feel exhausted even after what should have been a good night’s sleep? Are you struggling to use your jaw properly and chew comfortably? Any one of these problems demands a speedy solution. And yours may lie in Botox treatment.

Botox isn’t just for wrinkles. Its unique capabilities make it a versatile medication. It can actually be instrumental in relieving discomfort associated with TMJ, or temporomandibular joint disorder. Believe it or not, that jaw joint can be responsible for the types of discomfort that we listed above. With Botox calming the jaw muscles, you’ll experience welcome relief – even where other treatment options have failed.

Botox’s Role in Taming TMJ

Temporomandibular joint disorders wreak havoc on your facial and jaw muscles. TMJ causes these muscles to clench without your command, leading to fatigue, swelling, and pain. While a jaw disorder can be caused by any number of problems, the effects are always uncomfortable. Because your jaw is interconnected with many other aspects of your facial musculature, it’s common for a jaw problem to lead to pain and stress in other areas. If a disorder is allowed to persist, it can cause:

• Bruxism (chronic teeth grinding)
• Poor quality of sleep (from clenching during the night)
• Tooth wear
• Facial pain
• Headaches and migraines
• Swollen jaw joints
• Fatigued, difficult-to-use jaw
• Damage to the components of the TMJ
• A jaw that clicks or locks in place
• Dizziness
• Earaches and hearing problems

While methods of TMJ treatment like mouth guards can be helpful for some patients, those splints don’t always address the underlying cause of the problem. Even if a splint holds your jaw in the correct alignment, it can still attempt to clench. This puts the same level of stress on the jaw muscles, leading to associated problems.

Botox goes to the root of the issue. It calms the muscles responsible for such clenching, leaving them undisturbed. If you have been suffering from TMJ for some time, it’s likely that your jaw joints are swollen and aggravated. Getting Botox injections will allow them to heal, and return to their normal selves. Even patients who have found other methods of TMJ treatment unsuccessful experience a change with Botox treatment. It’s a new approach to soothing muscle pain.

How Botox Calms Muscle Contractions

Botox is a neuromuscular junction inhibitor. Simply put, it blocks communication between nerves and muscles. The medication prevents nerve endings from releasing acetylcholine. Without that chemical present, muscles will not contract. This leaves the target muscles relaxed, even when nerves are sending signals to them.

Botox is injected at specific sites to cause predictable results. With a skilled dentist administering the Botox, there’s no threat of the wrong muscle being affected. The number of units of Botox will determine the level of muscle relaxation. Depending on your pain, Dr. Scotto will determine the level of Botox that will best suit your needs. The end goal is reduced pain, not loss of muscle control.

Botox Therapeutic in Schenectady

Once your jaw has calmed down, you’ll remember what life used to be like. Without pain, stiffness, and a malfunctioning jaw, you’ll experience a return to business as usual. If you’ve been suffering for some time, you may have forgotten how this feels. Don’t put off relief another day. Get in touch with our office to learn more about Botox therapeutic.

When Botox Is Right For You

You may be considering Botox treatment for a solution to pain, and intrigued by its possibilities. How do you determine whether Botox is the appropriate step for you to take? This blog post will help you identify your own needs, and discuss whether Botox treatment could provide the results that you’re seeking. Our Schenectady team is on hand to answer any questions you may have – we want you to feel comfortable before treatment, and dentist-patient communication is an invaluable aid.

Botox Therapeutic

Chronic pain is a beast that can be quite difficult to tame. That pain often stems from an overactive muscle, which you have little control over. The jaw joint holds a great deal of stress, and can be prone to clenching. If you’ve had problems with your TMJ (jaw joint), you understand the pain that accompanies frequent clenching – and you want it to stop.

Solutions for TMJ Pain

A common answer to jaw-related problems is an occlusal guard. This helps to keep grinding under control. Unfortunately, bite guards aren’t always the right solution, Depending on the amount of stress that you’re putting on your jaw, you may still be stressing the area. Botox relaxes your TMJ so that you can’t clench your teeth so firmly – even while sleeping.

You don’t need to wake up with headaches, an exhausted jaw, and swollen TMJ any longer. Even when other treatment options have proved unsuccessful, Botox could provide relief from pain. If you’ve been experiencing muscle-related chronic pain, call our office to discuss your candidacy for Botox.

Meeting with your dentist is an important step of any Botox-related decision. Contact our Schenectady practice to learn more about treatment, and whether it could be right for you. We hope to help you move past jaw pain and reclaim your regular life.

It’s true that TMJ treatment will return your jaw joint to normal. But what does “normal” mean, exactly? In this case, it means it will be functioning properly, working without pain, and supporting every jaw movement you make. For patients who have been struggling with TMJ pain for many years, normal jaw function may be something they’ve forgotten! We look forward to bringing relief and improving your jaw function with Schenectady TMJ treatment.

What is TMJ Treatment?

Your TMJ is your temporomandibular joint. It connects your lower jaw to your skull, and allows you to bite, chew, speak, and accomplish other tasks vital to daily life. Located just in front of your ears on both sides of your face, your jaw joints are an incredibly important part of your facial structure. Unfortunately, their delicate structures make them prone to malfunction.

When your TMJ isn’t working properly, you will experience any number of symptoms. These may include

• Swollen jaw
• Tender teeth
• Painful jaw
• Headaches or facial pain
• Earaches
• Pressure at the jaw
• Clicking or grating sounds coming from the jaw
• A fatigued-feeling jaw

None of these are things you should have to deal with on a daily basis. TMJ treatment will soothe the discomfort associated with a TMJ disorder and return your jaw to health. Our Schenectady practice offers several types of treatment to accommodate different levels of TMJ dysfunction.

TMJ Treatment Options

1. Botox treatment – Botox tames the muscles at the jaw joint to allow the jaw to relax. Your jaw often clenches while you’re sleeping or otherwise unaware. Botox will keep it calm so that the area is able to heal.
2. TMJ splints – These mouth guards restrict your jaw movement so that the jaw can’t behave in damaging ways. They are worn nightly to prevent clenching and grinding, and retrain the jaw’s position.

If neither of those treatments bring you respite, we will work with you to find another path. Get in touch with our practice right away if your TMJ is misbehaving.

You’ve probably heard plenty about what Botox can do for facial lines and minor wrinkles. While this is an effective use for the muscle relaxing medication, Botox is capable of much more than aesthetic repairs. Because of its unique capabilities, Botox will actually relieve certain types of muscle pain. The way it affects muscles can halt troubling contractions that have been causing you discomfort for even long periods of time. Read on to determine whether Botox is right for your muscle pain. You don’t need to put up with the daily frustration and reduced quality of life that accompanies chronic pain any longer.

How Botox Prevents Muscle Pain

While not all types of pain will be prevented by Botox treatment, it’s ideal for discomfort that stems from overactive muscles. Certain conditions will cause muscles to contract against your will, leading to them becoming overworked and fatigued. Depending on the muscles, we can even be unaware of the contractions and their connection to our discomfort. With such lack of control over these contractions, there’s little we can do to stop them. This is where Botox can step in and remedy the situation.

Stopping these contractions can be necessary to allow the muscles to relax and pain to cease. Botox targets specific muscles to prevent nerve impulses from reaching them. Without commands from your nerves, those muscles will cease contracting. Our Schenectady dentist, Dr. Robert Scotto, is highly trained and experienced with Botox therapeutic. He will only inject a certain amount of medication at the precisely right site, leading your muscles to relax only as intended.

Muscles Appropriate for Botox Treatment

• The temporomandibular joint, or jaw joint (TMJ) – for pain stemming from clenching, grinding, and TMJ disorders
• Facial muscles – for head pain
• Neck and shoulder muscles – for myofascial pain

If you’re interested in remedying your muscle pain directly, Botox is the right step. Get in touch with our Schenectady team to learn more.

You’ve been feeling a little differently lately. You wake up with a sore jaw, you struggle to chew comfortably, and your jaw feels fatigued. Nothing has changed in your life, and you’re confused as to the sudden dysfunction of your jaw. If this pain and strife continues, it’s time to begin considering treatment. Jaw pain can be tricky to diagnose, and it’s best to begin by talking to your dentist. We’ll help you determine whether your pain stems from teeth grinding, from a problem with your temporomandibular joints, or from another source. Once we’ve determined the problem, Dr. Robert Scotto will choose appropriate treatment to get you feeling normal as quickly as possible.

Schenectady | Is my jaw pain TMJ related?

That’s impossible to answer over the Internet – we need to take a look at your mouth in order to diagnose a TMJ disorder, or TMD. But we can offer up a few symptoms that are commonly grouped together when the problem is stemming from the temporomandibular joint.

• Jaw or sides of the face are swollen
• Head pain
• Jaw movement is restricted
• Jaw makes clicking sounds when moving
• Teeth are sore
• Jaw feels tired and difficult to move

What are some solutions for Schenectady jaw pain?

That depends on the problem causing the discomfort in the first place. If it is a TMD, we’ll work with you in-office to determine which solution is most appropriate. With Dr. Robert Scotto, you may try the following:

1. Oral appliances – Mouth guards do a whole lot more than we expect. Specialized mouth guards will even restrict your jaw from moving while you sleep, preventing you from overworking your TMJs. These appliances will only be worn at night, and will help you wake feeling refreshed and relaxed (and pain-free!).
2. Botox therapeutic – When injected at the TMJs, Botox can tame troublesome muscles that refuse to relax. This gives your temporomandibular joints a break and allows the areas to heal.

No matter the cause of your jaw discomfort, it’s important that we take a look. Don’t put up with the pain any longer - email our office to schedule an appointment.

When you're in pain, it's difficult to focus on anything other than your discomfort. Pain related to a TMJ disorder is even more frustrating. TMJ problems tend to be aggravated by stress (although really, what isn't?), and the more pain you feel, the more stressed you become. Our Schenectady dentist is stepping up to end this vicious cycle. With Botox Medical for TMJ/TMD, you will experience relief from pain after a single, quick treatment. If you've tried other methods and can't find a TMJ resolution, it's time to consider Botox treatment.

Botox for TMJ Pain and TMJ Disorders | Schenectady Dentist

TMJ disorders result from an overworked or incorrectly functioning temporomandibular joint (your TMJ). This joint connects your lower jaw to your upper jaw and skull, and is responsible for all your jaw movements. As you can predict, this leaves it open to misuse.

When patients clench their teeth, grind their teeth, or otherwise overwork this joint, it begins to suffer. You may feel resulting pain of any of the following varieties:

• Head pain
• Facial pain
• Migraines
• Jaw Pain
• Mouth Pain
• Ear Pain

...and we don't want for any of our patients to have to go through that.

Enter Botox Medical. Botox stops chronic pain by preventing painful, overworked muscles from contracting. When injected directly into the TMJ, Botox will calm the joint and allow it to relax and heal. You will still be able to use your jaw, and Botox won't affect its movement in a noticeable way. All it will accomplish is pain relief and healing.

We offer other types of TMJ therapy as well, including splints and exercises. If you're curious about Botox's potential role in your TMJ treatment, just give our Schenectady dentist a call at 518-374-9770 to discuss specifics. You shouldn't spend another day in discomfort.