Ringing In The Ears
TMJ Dentist Chesapeake
Ringing in the Ears – Tinnitus
The medical term for ringing in the ears is tinnitus. Many patients who live in the Hampton Roads area suffer from tinnitus and seek help from their family doctor or a specialist such as an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor. Many times these doctors do not realize that the cause of the ringing is coming from a TMJ disorder. It is commonly misdiagnosed and often goes untreated or is treated ineffectively. Many times the ringing in the ears is a result of having the jaw being out of align which causes a strained bite. The jaw area of the face is a complex network of muscles and nerves, and when the bite is misaligned muscles and nerves throughout the head, including the ears, can be affected.
A Neuromuscular Dentist is trained to diagnose the cause of your tinnitus. It may be related to an unstable or misaligned bite. The dentist can work with the source of the problem by stabilizing and realigning the bite so that the entire jaw area works together without pain and ringing in your ears.
Dr. Carol F. Morgan, DDS, can help the ringing in your ears that is associated with TMJ disorders whether you live in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, York County, Williamsburg or any other surrounding city in Hampton Roads.
A very common symptom of temporomandibular disorder (TMD / TMJ) is limited jaw movement or the locking of the jaw. You may feel that your lower jaw is catching when you open or close your mouth. There may be times where you cannot open your mouth wide enough to adequately place food in your mouth. In severe cases, patients puree food or eat only soft foods because of limited jaw movement. In Virginia it is not uncommon that a patient with a locked jaw must move the jaw to one side or the other in order to open the mouth to eat or chew. We often hear that a patient needs to “pop” their jaw in order for the jaw to open fully.
There is no question that chronic pain very commonly causes symptoms of depression. Nobody likes to be in pain and unfortunately nobody like to be around somebody who suffers from chronic pain. Patients who suffer from depression many times have problems with their families at home. We commonly hear from a patient’s spouse how the depression affects the home life. There is an unfortunate amount of people who suffer from TMJ that also suffer from depression. The depression so commonly is misdiagnosed or dismissed as having no physical cause. There is also scientific evidence that shows that patients with chronic pain, a condition that nearly all TMJ patients can claim, have chemical changes in the brain as a result of the pain.