My daughter has suffered several years with severe headaches many of which we have not been able to help her with. She has clicking in her jaw and winces in pain often. Her wisdom teeth were growing in wrong so we had them removed and that has not helped. Her cousin has TMJ but we live in upstate NY above Albany and there are not that many places for us to get help. If you have any suggestions we would appreciate your help.
These types of problems are very common. I would strongly suggest beginning treatment with a diagnostic neuromuscular orthotic. I would initially concentrate on headache relief. The joints will usually do much better once the muscles are healthier and the bite stable. Headaches are usally easily relieved with Neuromuscular Dentistry once the diagnostic orthotic is in place. Reversible treatment with the orthotic is an excellent beginning. If the headaches are relieved (they usually are) you can then decide how to proced.
Removing wisdom teeth will rarely help either TMJ (TMD) disorders or headaches and often makes the problem worse to to stress on the joints during extraction and muscle splinting after the extraction. I usually recommend stabilizing the bite and relieving headaches prior to wisom teeth removal.
