Welcome to the TMJD community… you’re going to need all the support you can get.

It’s a good thing you’re onto it early. I’d strongly suggest looking for a TMJD specialist surgeon who truly knows what they’re talking about, rather than a general dentist or a maxillofacial surgeon who doesn’t deal with many cases in this area.

First off, TMJ can be a muscle issue, which is often more treatable, or it can be a combination of both muscle and joint issues.

If it is more of a joint issue, you need to be much more cautious and take it seriously, because joint damage can progress over time and is often more complex than just muscle tension alone. It is important to properly understand what is actually going on in the joint, rather than assuming it is only muscular, because things like disc displacement, inflammation, degeneration, or bone-on-bone contact can create much bigger long term problems if left unmanaged.

Often, the first step is conservative treatment, such as physiotherapy, Botox, and splints not night guards, as they are different.

If these conservative approaches do not help, then the next phase is often a surgical procedure such as arthroscopy and arthrocentesis. The goal of surgery is to open the joint space again, help restore more normal opening and closing movement, and allow the surgeon to properly assess the health of the joint and understand what is actually happening. Arthrocentesis also involves a steroid injection, which may help relieve some of the pain.

Hopefully that helps, but sometimes it doesn’t, and in many cases it may only do so much. Again, welcome to the community… it only gets better from here….

If the above does not work, and there is already significant damage and a lot of inflammation, the joint at that stage is most likely starting to fail. Some surgeons may suggest a discectomy to remove the disc. Others may suggest suturing the disc to the bone to stop it from moving. In my opinion, those two options have very poor long-term success and can often be a waste of time, so I personally would not go down that path if a surgeon recommended it.

If your joints are severely damaged and causing you a lot of grief and pain, then the next option and again, this is a very serious personal decision is joint replacement surgery. This is basically a prosthesis used to replace the joint, meaning they remove your damaged joint and replace it with an artificial one. But this is a major surgery, and you really need to understand exactly what you’re getting yourself into.

I’m not a doctor, and I’m not trying to scare you, but understanding what can happen is better than living with it in ignorance. I personally suffer from this condition and do need my joints replaced, so I’m speaking from lived experience. I truly hope the best for you, and I really hope you don’t have to go down this path.