#92 TMD/TMJ and the Internet

Having treated TMJ Disorder for 46 years the reader may find it strange for me to admit that until yesterday I never Googled “TMJ Disorder” to find out what the internet has to say about TMD/TMJ.  The first 32 years of my career treating TMD/TMJ surgically, I based treatment on what I was taught and experienced in my Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, along with countless hours attending lectures, seminars, and congresses, reading just about every textbook or textbook chapter available.  I have one whole shelf of my extensive medical library devoted to textbooks on TMD/TMJ. The last 14 years were spent doing independent research on the problem based on the basic science of joints in general and the relationship of inflammation on the deterioration of jaw joints.

Until yesterday it never crossed my mind to Google “TMJ Disorder” to observe what the public sees when they investigate the problem.

I was shocked by what I found.

We all know, or should know, that anyone can write and publish anything on the internet and, more often than not, what is published is not reliable information.  But when it comes to TMD/TMJ the available information is buttered across so many areas it is impossible to find one opinion or a single piece of data that is consistent with the next.  It appears that everyone has something different to say.  There is no consistency or stable data upon which the remaining internet investigation can be built.  From esteemed medical centers, dental schools, universities, independent health care providers, to patients with the problem, everyone paints a different, incomplete, and confusing portrait.

Everyone has a different description of symptoms, and everyone recommends various treatments based on their own experience.  I’m sure each author is well meaning, but no one has taken the time and done the work to present a complete and understandable explanation of how all the disparate symptoms of TMJ/TMD are connected.  Many of the sites claim there is no consistent explanation for the disease and simply state the problem has multiple causes poorly understood.

There are only two points of agreement or statements I found which are both self-evident and have something to do with diagnosis or treatment. “If you have a jaw joint problem, try not to more the jaw, and treat it with anti-inflammatories. (Ibuprofen, or aspirin)

As it works out, these two pearls of wisdom and fact are pieces of the puzzle that were eventually used to uncover the actual pathophysiology of TMD/TMJ.  All patients who have the problem, and all health care providers that try to treat the problem know that oral anti-inflammatories work well for 2 to 3 weeks and there-after are ineffective.  They also have empirically experienced that resting the jaw is also effective.  But you can’t survive very well if you can’t eat and talk.

14 years ago, as I began doing independent research on TMD/TMJ. Many of my patients told me if they rested the jaw by placing something between the front teeth and gently biting down it felt better.  As it turned out, placing something between the front teeth and following a simple protocol over several months made the inflammation inside the joints diminish consistently much better than ibuprofen, aspirin, or acetaminophen by following a simple protocol.

So, there is some valid information on the internet.  There were two stable datums so obvious that no one ever looked at them and figured out a better way to rest the joint and decrease inflammation.

That’s exactly what the Urbanek Device and Protocol does.  It rests the joint and decreases inflammation much longer, better, easier, and more predictably than anything else.  The Urbanek Device and Protocol is a patented, FDA cleared, and independent university study validated service now used by an increasing number of healthcare professionals throughout the United States.  It decreases inflammation within the TMJ like crutches decrease inflammation within the knee or a sling decreases inflammation within the elbow.

It just took a focused mind to find the correct information in a sea of seemingly disconnected information on the internet, combined with listening to the patients, to uncover the solution to a problem previously considered unsolvable.