#65 Value Based TMD/TMJ Treatment

Welcome to 2024.  I write this on New Year’s Day with all the “New Year’s Day” intentions of making 2024 the best and most successful year treating patients with TMD/TMJ.  This article is the 65^th in a series of articles focused on educating patients about all aspects of understanding, diagnosing, and treating the enigma/conundrum, commonly referred to as “TMJ”.  The earlier 64 installments are available under the “Meet Us” dropdown at www.tmjservicesofbrentwood.com.

Our practice, which is the only Tennessee facility solely dedicated to the non-surgical treatment of TMD/TMJ, has traditionally been closed the week between Christmas and New Year’s allowing staff time off to relax and spend time with their families.  I used a portion of this time to review our practice achievements and plan on how best apply these achievements to better serve patients throughout the coming year.  I also caught up on reading a couple of books and a blog authored by Dr. Robert Pearl.  Dr. Pearl is an M.D. and, among other accomplishments, is the retired CEO of Kaiser-Permanente, one of the largest health care systems in the United States.  He is a well-known health care influencer and has a lot to say about the state of our current health care system and where it is headed.  I follow him because he has the rare ability to size up our heath care conundrum from the viewpoint of each health care stake holder with emphasis on placing the patient first.  His books entitled “Mistreated”, “‘Why We Think We’re Getting Good Health Care – And Why We’re Usually Wrong’” and “Uncaring”, “‘How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors & Patients’” are emblematic of the actual state of medical care in the United States.  He is not afraid to describe the obvious and write an honest commentary with recommendations for the solution.  To avoid claims of plagiarism, I want to acknowledge that many of the concepts that follow are lifted from the pages of his books and blog including the title to this article.

One of his most recent blog posts was entitled “Value Based Healthcare”.  In it he defines Value Based Healthcare as having three parts: excellent clinical quality, convenient access, and affordability for all.  He further states that portions of our health care system succeed in supplying two of the three, but never all three simultaneously.  I agree with his assessment.

Our goal at TMJ Services of Brentwood is to achieve each portion of this trifecta as much as humanly possible.  And the comments which follow are based on the single disease upon which we focus, TMD/TMJ.  The application of the principles of health care in general and how they apply to one specific disease are similar if not identical.

Doctor Pearl has authored two books and a biweekly bog to share his knowledge and his viewpoint.  With my focused limitation on TMD/TMJ, I don’t expect to cover the topic in two pages, but I certainly don’t need to write a book.  What follows is a multipart series covering each aspect of Value Based TMD Treatment.  For a patient who suffers from the debilitating and life changing symptoms of TMD/TMJ this series should be inciteful.

The first part in this series will address “Excellent Clinical Quality”.  The second part will address “Convenient Access”, and the third part will address “Affordability for All”.

“Excellent Clinical Quality” can itself be divided into several parts.  Enumerated, these would be:

1. High degree of documented successful clinical results.
2. Simple transparent treatment.
3. Excellent patient compliance.
4. Minimal side effects and unintended consequences.
5. Sincere and effective provider/care giver service delivery.
6. Communication between provider and patient available, understandable, and adequate.

TMD/TMJ is currently defined by its symptoms. The symptoms of TMD/TMJ are frequent and recurrent headache, earaches, neck pain, jaw pain, ringing in the ears, a feeling of fullness in the ears, vertigo, upper back and shoulder pain, arm/hand/finger tingling and numbness and various kinds of jaw locking.  Everyone who treats TMD/TMJ agree that these are the recognized symptoms.  This is the only point of agreement among providers.  From there on, there is nothing but disagreement as to the cause and appropriate treatment for these symptoms. That is why TMD/TMJ is an enigma and conundrum.  No one can agree on the cause and the appropriate treatment. That is why proposed treatment has been limited to treating symptoms rather than the cause.

But the cause of all the symptoms has now been uncovered and explained. I, with the help of my patients completed that research 13 years ago.  The root cause of all the symptoms is chronic inflammation within the joint itself.  Now the root cause is known and can be addressed by decreasing the chronic inflammation without drugs and surgery.  By simply unloading the jaw joint like a crutch unloads an inflamed knee, all the symptoms of TMD dissipate.  This patented, FDA cleared, independent university studied service is known as the Urbanek Device and Protocol.

The High degree of documented successful clinical results of this device and service can be reviewed by reading the study based on 3000 successfully treated patients performed by Middle Tennessee Stated University under the auspices and control for their Investigational Review Board.  A reprint of this study is available by asking our patient coordinator to email you a copy.

There are also hundreds of patient testimonials available at www.tmjservicesofbrentwood which further elucidate patient’s response to treatment.

The next article in this series will take a deep dive into the results of the independent MTSU study.  The focus will be to clarify the analytical results for each symptom and the impact this study has on defining the value of the Urbanek Device and Protocol to patients and the health care professions in general.  The Urbanek Device and Protocol is truly Value Based Healthcare.