Juneau, AK TMJ Pain and Auto Injury

Jaw or TMJ pain is a fairly typical problem experienced by many people after a car crash, and it can be tough for some health practitioners to diagnose the source of the problem. Complicating the matter, oftentimes you won't develop TMJ pain until many weeks or months after a crash.

Dr. Messerschmidt has helped many individuals with jaw pain after an injury, and the medical literature explains what produces these types of symptoms. During a collision, the tissues in your neck are often stretched or torn, causing ligament, muscle, or nerve injury. This can obviously cause pain in the neck and back, but since your central nervous system is one functioning unit, irritation of the nerves can cause issues in other parts of your body.

For example, with radicular pain, irritation of a nerve can cause prickling or pins and needles in the arm and hand. Similarly, it can affect parts of your body above the injured tissues, like your head and jaw. Headaches after a crash are very common because of neck injury, and the jaw works the same way. Dr. Messerschmidt sees this very often in our Juneau, AK office.

Research shows that the root of many jaw or TMJ problems starts in the cervical spine and that treatment of the underlying neck injury can fix the secondary headaches or jaw symptoms. The key to resolving these symptoms is simple: Dr. Messerschmidt will work to restore your spinal column back to health, relieving the inflammation, treating the injured areas, and removing the irritation to the nerves in your spine.

Dr. Messerschmidt finds that jaw and headache issues often resolve once we restore your spine to its healthy condition.

If you live in Juneau, AK and you've been injured in a crash, Dr. Messerschmidt can help. We've been treating auto injury patients since 1983, and we can probably help you, too. Give our office a call today at (907) 789-1344 for an appointment.

Ciancaglini R, Testa M, Radaelli G. Association of neck pain with symptoms of temporomandibular dysfunction in the general adult population. Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine 1999;31:17-22.

Brantingham JW, Cassa TK, Bonnefin D, Pribicevic M, Robb A, et al. Manipulative and multimodal therapy for upper extremity and temporomandibular disorders: a system review. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2013;36(3):143-201.