Hi everybody, Dr. Kinney here, your chiropractor for TMJ in Belmar, NJ.
Today, I wanna talk about one of the ways that we treat TMJ problems or what we call TMD or temporomandibular dysfunction.
So the TMJ joint is better known as your jaw, right? Your jaw opening and closing for chewing, for talking.
So the first thing we need to do in order to determine if there is dysfunction is do a thorough examination, which was covered on an earlier video.
Today, I’m gonna talk about how we can image the actual TMJ.
So the TMJ joint is very, very, very intimately connected to where your neck comes out here, right?
So the actual TMJ joint is here and the very first bone of the neck is here.
As you can see, there’s a lot of shared muscular connections and muscles that are attached to all these different areas.
So we need to assess what’s going on with the next spine.
If there is a loss in the curve of the neck spine, that could put a tremendous amount of stress on the muscles all in here and actually affect the jaw.
X Rays for TMJ from Your Chiropractic in Belmar, NJ
So we have x-ray right on site, digital x-ray that we can actually take pictures of the jaw lock, a patient’s spine front to back and to the side.
And we can see what’s going on with the neck and the actual TMJ joint itself.
Digital x-ray is great because we get the image immediately zipped right up on our computer, so we can see, a, is there a good curve in the neck or not?
And what’s going on with the alignment up where the jaw articulate so it becomes a joint up at the top of the neck.
So x-ray is one of our best tools so we can assess and see what’s going on not only with the neck, but with the jaw.
And then we do analysis to come up with ways that we can correct these problems, get a better curve, take the pressure off the jaw to help with some of the TMD problems that people might have or TMJ issues.
So that’s one of the best ways, and it’s great that we have this fabulous digital tool right on site. I never have to refer patients anywhere.
We get the images right away so that we can get you going and to the root cause of the problems and get it correct to the best we can.
Alright, thanks so much for tuning in.
We’ll see you soon.
