#99 The Negative Consensus Regarding TMD/TMJ

Why is there a universally public and professional negative consensus regarding TMD/TMJ?

The answer has many features.  It is not an exaggeration to state patients with the diagnosis and the doctors faced with treating them have negative opinions regarding this disease.  Medical providers often misdiagnose the symptoms and confuse TMD/TMJ with problems they are most familiar and dental providers faced with a confirmed case of TMD/TMJ wish the patient would go somewhere else to seek treatment.  Patients routinely complain of seeking treatment from multiple providers using various treatment modalities to no avail.  Patients feel they are on a merry-go-round going from one doctor to another.  One patient told me she had seen 150 separate doctors over a span of 20 years trying to find a solution for symptoms no one seemed to understand and successfully treat.

The consensus among patients, physicians and dentists is that regarding TMD/TMJ “Nothing Works!”

TMD/TMJ is a very common disease.  It is primarily a female disease.  All the medical and dental doctors know it affects females over males 9 to 1. But if you ask them, they don’t know why.  However, the answer has been in scientific literature of 50 years.  This one fact speaks volumes about the uncoordinated efforts applied to the problem.

The symptoms are very disparate, ranging from pains in the head, neck, upper back, and shoulders, to tingling and pain in the arms and fingers.  Ringing in the ears, vertigo, and subjective hearing loss is also common.  These symptoms are so diverse that the physicians tell patients they make no sense, and some told they are crazy.  Some patients present to the dentist sure they are having dental pain and convince the dentist to remove a tooth or two before it becomes apparent the dental extractions didn’t solve the problem.  The oral surgeons are happy to take out 4 wisdom teeth and tell the patient the impacted teeth are causing the symptoms but after surgery the pain is not relieved.  PCP’s, neurologists, PA’s at convenient care clinics, and ER doctors routinely treat headaches with various medications that at best temporarily numb the mind so the pain is not so apparent.  Physical therapists and chiropractors apply their respective technologies to relieve muscle tension only to repeat treatment again and again as the symptoms get worse and more frequent.  And most recently, everyone is getting in on the Botulinum Toxin A (Botox) bandwagon promoted heavily by the pharmaceutical companies who make the drugs that temporarily paralyze the painful muscles until the patient runs out of patience or runs out of money and/or insurance coverage.  The record there is $200,000 spent over 10 years with the patient offering to show me the receipts when I questioned her exaggeration during a consultation.

And then there is Meniere’s Disease (ringing, fullness of the ears, dizziness/vertigo) for which the ENT doctors have no solution after spending thousands of dollars making the diagnosis. The symptoms are known to occur frequently with TMD/TMJ.

These are just some of the reasons TMD/TMJ carries with it such negative perceptions and consensus by everyone involved.

This all changed when I did independent research looking for the answer to the TMD/TMJ conundrum.  All the answers were already contained in the scientific literature.  But no one had ever looked at the problem without applying the bias of their own profession.  If you only own a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

The answer to the conundrum turned out to be simple.  Most answers to complicated problems are simple.

The common denominator of TMD/TMJ is chronic inflammation within the Temporomandibular joint.  Inflammation creates the symptoms. When chronic inflammation subsides, all the symptoms resolve.  Unloading the joints by using the Urbanek Device and Protocol is the best way to unload the TMJ.  It’s that simple.

By the way, it’s a female problem because estrogen exacerbates inflammation.  This fact has been in the scientific literature of 50 years.  Apparently, no one read it.  They were just holding a hammer looking for a nail.