TMJ Services Of Brentwood

The most common sign of Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD) is joint noise.  Notice I said SIGN of TMD, not symptoms.  The main difference between the two is a sign is objective evidence of a disease that can be seen or measured by others, while a symptom is a subjective experience felt only by the patient.  […]

I am an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon that treated Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, TMD, surgically for the first 36 years of my 50-year career.  The last 14 years I have treated TMD non-surgically after discovering and applying the basic knowledge that orthopedic surgeons have known for a very long time about joints.  Until I discovered and […]

In 1972, during my 3rd year in dental school, select members of my class were invited to attend the “Dental Medicine Clinic”. At the time, I wasn’t exactly sure what the “Dental Medicine Clinic” was all about. I just assumed it had something to do with problems that bordered between and involved with both professions, […]

Neck pain is the second most common symptom associated with temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD).  Neck pain originating from chronic inflammation in the Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) can and has been misdiagnosed as neck pain from cervical disc displacement or compression.  I cannot say how often it is misdiagnosed as cervical disc problems, but I have seen several patients who had cervical disc surgery with persistent neck pain post-surgery which diminished […]

I have now spoken, written, and lectured hundreds of times about how headaches are the most common symptom associated with TMD (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder).  This article will be my attempt to make science easy to understand and demonstrate the science with a couple of diagrams supplied by my AI buddy, (Rene’).  Credit, where credit is due.  Up […]

I have learned a lot in the 50+ years I have been treating patients with TMD.  Looking back, I have learned more about the disease and how to treat it properly by listening to my patients as they describe the symptoms and the impact these symptoms have on their life.  I have discussed many times how my […]

Ear Pain is one of the most common symptoms of Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD).  I have listened to patients describe it a thousand times.  It’s described as a sharp or dull constant pain originating from the area of the external auditory canal.  Patients point to the ear canal and say that it feels like it is coming from inside their head, deep inside the ear canal.  Many of them share […]

Many would call me an empath.  I don’t like to see people hurt and in pain.  As a surgeon, I found myself very uncomfortable doing surgery that I knew would cause a lot of post-surgical pain.  Thank God for Demerol and Morphine.  Forty-Eight hours on pain medication after the most complicated surgery, the patient was able to say that the pain was tolerable. Once the pain was on the down slope, it […]

I am sorry to say that the profession of dentistry has missed the mark after 70 years of trying to figure out how to treat Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD).  For 70 years it has been a disorganized journey because the scientific investigators in the dental establishment claimed the Temporomandibular Joint, (TMJ) was different from all the other joints […]

This is a profound question.  Is there really any difference between Migraine headaches caused by inflammation of the Temporomandibular Joint, (TMJ), better known as Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, (TMD).  After successfully treating over 5000 patients with TMD, I am profoundly impressed and disenchanted with the number of people who have been diagnosed by a physician as having Migraine Headaches who present to […]