TMD, or temporomandibular joint dysfunction is often poorly understood. It also, as with back pain, tends to fall between two stools. Patients are usually given either a pill and a splint and told to go away or perhaps after several visits to the GP or the dentist and much pain offered radical surgical options. Just as with back pain, in between the pill and the knife there are far more useful options for most people. Just as with back pain, osteopathy is often the most practical helpful and intelligent intervention.
Osteopaths examine in detail the postural relationships between the head/neck/jaw and the rest of the body from the ground up. Cranial Osteopaths also do the same for the highly complex three-dimensional jigsaw that is the bones of the face. The new field of Osteodontics puts all this together with the expertise of a select few specialist dentists who have a similar appreciation for the delicacy and functional interdependency of the structures we are both seeking to affect. Treating with this level of insight and understanding using either cranial osteopathic techniques, gentle dental appliances or sometimes both can have rather wonderful outcomes with otherwise intractable problems. Please see osteodontics page for some more background.
It is important to stress problems with the jaw are not limited to clicking and pain. TMD can play a primary role in facial pain (e.g. trigeminal neuralgia, sinusitis) ear problems (infections, blocked ears, certain types of deafness, tinnitus) tooth pain (including tooth grinding a.k.a bruxism). One can go further: the potential interdependency of the jaw and the rest of the body cannot be overstated. Heavy-handed orthodontic appliances on teenagers often result in knee pain for example. Early cranial osteopathic intervention will make most orthodontics unnecessary by helping to guide correct facial growth. If orthodontic work is carried out it is essential to have osteopathic treatment before, during and after, to avoid malign effects on the health often not obviously connected to the procedures. This is a highly complex area that is ripe for further study and richly fertile in terms of maximizing human potential and the avoidance of human suffering.