Joint dilatation leads to dislocations, joint adhesions leading to disc perforation … are complications of temporomandibular arthritis. So what is temporal arthritis? Are complications of the disease dangerous? Along learn more information about the disease in the article below to be more proactive in treating and preventing yourself.
Table of Contents
What is temporomandibular arthritis?
Before looking at the complications of temporomandibular arthritis , we should know some information about this disease.
As the only dynamic joint part of the cranial part, the jaw opening plays an important role to help the jaw close and open to perform activities such as speaking, eating, swallowing … of the lower jaw bone and other components such as joint ligament, tissue behind the plate, sacrum … Condition of the jaw joint or the facial muscles around the jaw joint disorder is called temporomandibular arthritis or state joint disorder positive function.
At this time, the patient will begin to experience pain, cyclical pain, imbalance of the joint between the jawbone and skull, muscle spasm, resulting in a disorder of the jaw function, causing affect daily life.
It is quite common and can be acquired by anyone. However, women who are in puberty or menopause are at an increased risk.
Symptom
Temporomandibular arthritis can occur on one or both sides of the face. At first, the pains are mild, they will go away without any treatment. However, if the disease is advanced, the pain in the temporal joints will be intense and continuous, especially when eating and chewing. Along with that, the patient may also develop the following symptoms:
- Pain appears around the ear or in the ear. The patient has difficulty opening and closing the mouth and also has difficulty moving the jaw.
- If you open your mouth to chew or swallow, the joint makes a squeak, so you usually have to shut your mouth to the side. This causes fatigue in the jaw, uneven face bite.
- When the temporomandibular joint is painful, when chewing food, there is a clumping noise, it means the disease has become worse. At this time, the patient needs to be examined and treated immediately to avoid having dangerous complications.
- In addition, the patient may experience headaches, facial aches, ear pain, neck fatigue, body fatigue, temporal lymphadenitis with lymph nodes on both sides, chewing muscle hypertrophy causing the face to swell, losing the symmetrical.
Reason
Temporomandibular arthritis has many causes. However, the main causes of the disease that we must mention include:
- Due to bone and joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis , osteoarthritis , arthritis … This is considered the most common cause of temporal arthritis. Especially people with temporal arthritis due to rheumatoid arthritis account for up to 50%.
- The elderly suffer from temporomandibular arthritis often due to osteoarthritis. Because at this time the body’s joints have been degenerated, the possibility of disease is higher.
- Due to injury while in traffic, falling while working or playing sports.
- Suddenly opening your mouth, chewing gum a lot, grinding your teeth while sleeping will create great pressure on the temporal joints causing the disease.
- Teeth erupting, crowded or suffering from psychological trauma, stress are also common causes of disease.
Complications of temporomandibular arthritis
Like many other conditions, temporal arthritis, if not treated early, can cause many dangerous complications. The first complication that should be addressed is joint dilation. Dilated temporomandibular joints increase the risk of dislocations, joint adhesions. Let’s understand these conditions as follows:
Temporomandibular dysfunction
If the temporomandibular joint is dilated, the risk of dislocations increases. Our jaw joints are connected to the skull through the hinge joints on either side of the ears. If this joint deviates from the bone, it will lead to temporal dislocation. This is a complication of common temporal arthritis.
In addition to the cause of temporomandibular joint disorders that relax muscles, dislocations can also be caused by: trauma, excessively enlarged mouth, large yawning, lack of teeth in the mouth causing them to be dislocated, due to wisdom teeth being deviated, grinding teeth long time…
At this time, the patient usually presents the following symptoms:
When a temporal dislocation occurs, common symptoms include:
- Jaw muscle fatigue: Patients often find that the jaw muscles are tired, uncomfortable with facial muscles such as vomiting, smiling, opening mouth, yawning …
- When you chew, open your mouth to hear a clump of clump in the joint.
- The pain occurs when chewing, they appear in the muscles around the jaw, temporal joints and spread to the entire head. At first, the patient only feels pain when chewing, but after that, it also hurts to chew.
- After yawning loudly, laughing will not be able to close your mouth.
- Dizziness, tinnitus, more loose teeth.
These symptoms often appear intermittently. It went on for a few days, after that it went away again, making it hard to notice. Therefore, patients are often subjective, do not go to the clinic early, leading to severe disease progression and more serious complications. Specifically, the disease can cause cartilage and joint degeneration, degenerate joints, and destroy bones, making patients unable to open their mouth.
For treatment, the patient will be prescribed temporal joint manipulation. The steps are as follows:
- After the patient has performed all the necessary testing and is diagnosed with a dislocated jaw, the doctor will explain to the patient the procedure being applied.
- The doctor will give the patient a mild muscle relaxant or pain reliever before the procedure.
- The patient is allowed to sit, lean back against a chair or hard wall, with his head looking straight.
- The operator stands in front of the patient, using 2 pads to place the lower jaw chewing on the inner teeth. Then, use 2 fingers to apply pressure on the gauze, four fingers firmly hold the corner of the outer jaw. Next, the doctor will use force to push the angle of the jaw down, push it back. If there is a feeling of slipping in the head area, and the patient is able to keep the mouth open normally, the joint has returned to its original position.
- In case of initial manipulation failure, the patient may re-manipulate. It is important for the patient to stay calm, not to worry, to cooperate with their doctor for the easy treatment process.
- After the jaw joint has been manipulated, the patient needs an elastic bandage for about 10-14 days. This will help avoid recurrence, limit adverse effects on the joint.
- After that, the patient was instructed by doctors to care at home so that the jaw joint could quickly return to a normal state.
- If dislocations recur many times, should see a specialist for proper treatment.
Adhesion – a complication of temporomandibular arthritis
The temporomandibular joint is also a complication of temporomandibular arthritis that we need to mention. This is a condition in which the joints are limited or lose their mobility due to the calcification and fibrosis of the components of the joint such as the cavity, the convex, the outer ligament of the joint, the hollow joint.
In addition to the cause of the jaw arthritis, joint adhesions can be caused by other causes such as:
- Injury: Traffic accident, falling …
- Due to the metabolic disorder of the development of the protrusion, protrusion or deflation.
- The cases of parotid gland inflammation, due to complications of otitis media …
People with temporal joint stickiness often experience the following symptoms:
- The body is thin due to limited chewing food.
- Difficulty eating and drinking
- See the disproportionate sides of his face. The chin is usually skewed to one side, the lower layer of the face deflated.
- Difficult to open mouth, depending on the degree of joint adhesion that the activity of opening the mouth narrows by 1-2 cm.
- Deep bite.
- If you touch the temporal joint you will see a protrusion that is limited in movement. In some cases, the demand convex also sticks with the inactive supply supply.
Besides diagnosis by clinical symptoms, patients are indicated to perform other tests X – ray. After determining the exact disease and disease level, the patient will be assigned the appropriate regimen. The principle of treatment is to restore joint mobility and chewing function.
To treat complications of this temporal arthritis, there are 2 ways: conservative treatment and surgical treatment. In particular, conservative treatment is often indicated for people with degree 1 joint adhesions. At this time, doctors will guide patients to practice opening their mouth with mouth ball tools and lower jaw movement. As for surgical treatments, depending on each object, one of the two methods below can be chosen:
Shaping joints with self ribs:
- Cut the skin, remove the stickiness and shape the joint
- Fixed 2 functions
- Take the rib cartilage
- Cartilage transplantation
- Put the drain on closed when the pressure is on, then stitch it in layers.
- Systemic treatment with antibiotics
Shaping the joint and using alternative materials:
- Cut the skin
- Proceed to remove the adhesive block and shape the joint as method 1.
- Fixed 2 functions.
- Proceed to place the convex object so that the cusp is in the correct position. Then fix the bridge convex to the upper branches of the lower jaw bone prepared with screws.
- Use antibiotics for systemic treatment to reduce pain and inflammation.
Complications of temporomandibular arthritis – perforation of the disc joint
This is a very serious complication of temporomandibular arthritis. Because if not treated in time, the perforation of the disc can cause the bone to be destroyed, and the stiffness of the joints makes the patient unable to open his mouth.
Treatment of temporomandibular arthritis
Complications of temporomandibular arthritis are very dangerous. Therefore, to avoid having these conditions, early detection and treatment of the disease is essential. Currently, there are 2 methods of treating this disease: invasive treatment and non-invasive treatment. As follows:
Invasive treatment:
The patient is assigned to orthodontic, removing obstructions in the lower jaw to help the movement become more comfortable. If teeth are lost, the patient will be replaced with dentures, correcting the shape of the deviated teeth. At the same time, perform surgery, direct intervention and joints in the temporal jaw.
Non-invasive treatment:
The purpose of this treatment is to refine the perception and behavior of the patient. Physical therapy exercises for the jaw and neck will be used. Or the patient will be prescribed the right drugs.
For example, if you are sick at an early stage, the symptoms are mild, you will be given pain relievers such as paracetamol, mobic, diclofenac … Besides, anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants will also Nominated.
If the condition is already severe, the doctor can perform interventions on the teeth and chewing system. At this time, the teeth correction measures such as tooth extraction, prosthesis, surgery … will be indicated.
However, each person’s recovery time is not the same. It depends on whether the patient’s illness is short or long. If detected earlier and treated as soon as possible, the success rate will be higher. Therefore, late treatment cases are often less likely to be cured, even living with it for a lifetime.
Above is information to know about complications of temporomandibular arthritis. This is a common disease that anyone can get. Therefore, it is best to take precautions to protect your health.
