TMD Diagnosis

Serving Northern Virginia including Oakton, Fairfax, Reston, Alexandria, Arlington and Washington D.C.

Many people who come to us with TMD symptoms have had those symptoms for a long time. They have often been to one or more doctors in search of pain relief and have taken one or more pain medications. A painkiller is wonderful for the time it lasts, but it doesn’t get to the cause of the problem.

Many TMD symptoms can arise from health conditions other than a misaligned jaw joint. But if you have been suffering from any of these painful symptoms and wonder how they could have a dental cause, please contact our neuromuscular dentist for a TMD consultation. It would be worthwhile ruling out TMD. If Dr. Chung determines that you do not have TMD, you have made progress in your search for the cause. If she determines that you do have TMD, your search is ended and pain relief is at hand.

K7 Evaluation System

As a highly-qualified neuromuscular dentist, Dr. Chung has invested in sophisticated equipment for diagnosing and treating TMD. We can use the K7 System to obtain data essential for evaluating your jaw joint and bite and diagnosing TMD.

Data on your jaw movements – a misaligned jaw joint will move the mandible (lower jaw) in an uncomfortable or painful way, such that the upper and lower teeth do not come together smoothly. The K7 system tracks and records your jaw movements.
Data on your jaw muscle activity – if you have TMD, your jaw muscles are in perpetual stress and their electrical activity can be measured and recorded using electrodes.
Data on your jaw joint sounds – one of the TMD symptoms is jaw joint cracking or popping sounds. The K7 System will record the sounds as your lower jaw moves, so that we can better understand how the ball on the lower jaw is moving in the upper jaw socket. There’s a cartilage pad in between the two bone surfaces which prevents them from rubbing directly against each other. It could be out of position.

All this data can be printed out in an understandable series of graphs and charts. Dr. Chung will do this, and will go over it with you to explain what it all means.

Computed Tomography (CT Scans)

Another diagnostic tool Dr. Chung uses is our tomography machine, which makes digital images of the jaw joint and its related structures. This gives us more data about how the lower and upper jaw bones are positioned in relation to each other.