Painful TMJ diseases affect more than 10 million americans, mostly women; The TMJ association calls for patients to register their names on www.tmj.org
MILWAUKEE, March 20 -- According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 10 million Americans -- perhaps as many as 90 percent of them women -- are suffering from temporomandibular joint, or TMJ, diseases. Medicine has yet to agree on how to diagnose and treat them. A national awareness campaign was launched today by The TMJ Association to emphasize the severity of TMJ diseases and demand quality research and improved treatments.
"TMJ patients have suffered enough and their voices need to be heard. They have been subjected to inaccurate diagnoses, faulty products, lack of adequate treatment and pain that disrupts everyday activities," said Terrie Cowley, president of The TMJ Association and a TMJ patient. "We want TMJ patients to have more information, and to join together to help increase support for research."
The Association encourages TMJ patients and others to learn more about TMJ and be part of the solution by registering their names today on www.tmj.org. Each person who does this will help build the critical mass the Association needs to approach Congress and other agencies in a position to fund more research, Cowley said.
The lack of information on TMJ within the medical and dental communities often leaves patients searching for answers. Indeed, many of the Association's members -- TMJ patients themselves -- have reported that their doctors first attributed their symptoms to psychosomatic factors.
To begin building a better understanding of TMJ, the Association will convene in May its first scientific meeting, in which the country's leading TMJ experts across a number of disciplines will review the state of the science and direct future research.
The symptoms of TMJ diseases can range from occasional discomfort to debilitating pain and jaw dysfunction. The two temporomandibular joints are located in front of the ears, at the sides of the head. They attach the lower jaw to the skull. Given the many tasks required from these joints -- critical everyday activities such as chewing, swallowing, talking and breathing -- they are two of the most active and complex joints in the body. Symptoms of TMJ diseases can include facial and/or jaw joint pain; neck, shoulder, back pain and/or tension headaches; locking of the jaw in either the closed or open position; and a bite that feels uncomfortable, or as if it is continually changing.
Though TMJ diseases can affect both men and women, the majority of those seeking treatment, perhaps as high as 90 percent, are women of childbearing age.
Currently, doctors and dentists use more than 50 treatments for TMJ diseases, including mouth splints, and implants for total joint replacement.
But, none of the treatments for serious cases have been tested in controlled clinical trials, and some have actually aggravated and even caused the problems, Cowley said. She added that the FDA has recalled some implant devices that caused serious complications in thousands of patients.
"Medical research has not yet defined all of the causes of TMJ," said Christian Stohler, D.D.S., at the University of Michigan. "Research has shown that it may be aggravated by trauma, certain health care procedures, oral habits and other diseases. However, TMJ symptoms are known to occur without an identifiable cause."
Most TMJ patients learn to live with the disease and do not require treatment, as their symptoms cause minor pain and often come in intervals. However, according to Stohler, approximately one-quarter of TMJ patients develop serious cases, which progress to a chronic state of severe dysfunction and pain.
Insurance coverage for TMJ varies from state to state and is somewhat haphazard and inconsistent, Cowley said.
"Since founding The TMJ Association, we have received literally thousands and thousands of messages from people who didn't know where to turn," Cowley said. "These people are in pain -- and often in terrible debt from seeking treatment -- and have been passed from doctor to doctor and treated repeatedly and unsuccessfully. Clearly, more TMJ research and patient support are needed."
Founded in 1986 in Milwaukee as a local support group for TMJ patients and their families, The TMJ Association was incorporated in 1989 as a non-profit organization with a mission of education, research and service. Through its education and support outreach, the Association is now the leading international resource and advocacy organization for thousands of TMJ sufferers and their loved ones, as well as a resource for researchers and health professionals.
The Association works toward its goal to promote scientific research which will yield the causes, safe and effective treatments and ultimately the prevention of TMJ diseases.
Attention Media:
The TMJ Association will launch its new Web site on March 20th.