August 3, 2020
Hey guys! We're here with Sara today. She has been having a lot of TMJ pain and a lot of clenching and grinding. Today we're going to see if we can correct those problems! Sara says, "I've had really bad jaw pain my whole life, but recently it's been a lot worse. I feel like when I wake up in the morning I have a headache and I'm a little bit dizzy and my jaw just feels like it's knotted and I can't get any relief." Today we're doing some Botox on Sara to hopefully get to the bottom of her TMJ pain.
Typically when we do TMJ Botox we'll do some under the masseter region (or around the cheekbone), as well as the temporalis (or the temple), which for Sara are the biggest triggers of her pain. So you're probably wondering how Botox actually works. Botox inactivates the nerve endings that cause muscles to contract, eliminating involuntary contractions in the jaw. Typical Botox treatment for TMJ/TMD includes around 50-60 units. The effects of Botox last about 3 months, as the constant workout of facial muscles in daily activity and sleep slowly remove the Botox. As you can see here, around 73% of people report drastic improvement in just a few days.
“I don’t feel like anything I’ve tried has worked. I’ve tried to figure out multiple solutions to this issue. I feel like when I clench at nighttime it gets worse each time I do it, so I just need something different than what I’ve been trying,” says Sara.
One of the best parts about Botox is it’s very pain-free, very quick (whole process takes about 5 or so minutes), and you can really see really quick results. We’re hoping that with Sara we can see results by about as quick as tomorrow morning! Sara says, “Miranda and Dr. King are awesome, they made me feel super secure because I am not a big fan of needles, but the whole experience was really quick and easy and honestly, Dr. King is really good at Botox. It was super quick and he talked me through the whole thing and I felt really good about it afterwards. I honestly feel like it’s actually starting to work, so I’m happy!”
So if you’re out there suffering from TMJ pain or clenching and grinding, similar to Sara, just know there are a bunch of different things we can do to help you here at Atlanta Dental Spa!
