functional dentistry and occlusion from new generation
Why Many Dentists Are Avoiding Treating TMJ While The Number of Cases Steadily Increases
At a recent dental conference, a mentor of mine shared something that really stuck with me. He confessed that he felt hesitant to treat TMJ, or jaw joint, disorders. I couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t alone. Many dentists today are feeling the same way.
While more and more dentists decide to avoid dealing with TMD complexities, the number of people struggling with TMJ problems is growing.
What went wrong and what can we do about it?
TMD on the rise
TMJ is a vital joint in our body, influenced by all our bad lifestyle choices, resulting in imbalances and misalignments. We are more stressed, sit longer in unnatural positions, sleep less, and experience all sorts of negative environmental impacts – from toxins and (too much) screens to noise and suboptimal food that not only lacks nutrients, but also doesn’t require chewing – making our jaw muscles weak and unable to keep TMJ in stable and desired position.
Also, we are seeing more and more cases of dental health issues, caused by anxiety such as grinding the teeth or clenching the jaws—both major contributors to TMD.
Ironically, modern dentistry also contributes to the rising number of TMD cases by prioritizing profitable quick fixes over long-term health. Aesthetics medicine, when done incorrectly, brings shiny new smiles – but way too often at the cost of the misaligned bites, leading to TMJ and all sorts of oral health issues later on.
The Challenges of Treating TMD
So why don’t dentists see their opportunity in treating TMJ disorders, a rising problem of modern dental health?
Treating TMD is very complex and requires lots of knowledge, skills, and experience; alongside extra visits, longer conversations, and hands-on interventions. In some severe cases, TMD might require surgery, which brings its own set of risks and unknowns.
More often than not, dentists alone can not solve TMJ problems – we need a team involving orthodontists, physical therapists, and other specialists trained for TMJ problems, which makes work more complicated, expensive, and time and energy consuming.
One of the hardest parts about treating TMJ disorders is that you can’t always predict how things will turn out. Even when patients follow the treatment plan to the letter, there’s still a chance they might feel pain or face other problems.
Quick Fixes Are Rarely Long-Term Solutions
Patients might feel like they’re stuck in a loop, going round and round without getting anywhere. At the same time, dentists might feel like they’re not making any real progress, which can be discouraging and frustrating.
In other words, treating TMD is a serious medicine without easy answers and fast solutions, incomparably more complicated than aesthetics or routine procedures.
Last but not least, patients with TMD are often more difficult to manage than other patients. They are not only dealing with jaw pain – and any pain, when lasting long time impacts a person’s mental and emotional state -TMDs often mess up with eating, and may trigger (or be triggered by) anxiety. Some patients can have trouble sleeping. Finally, many of them find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle – TMD pain causes stress and insomnia which then further increases the pain, making them tired and easily irritable. Treating TMD often requires work with multiple experts and supporting patients on multiple levels, including providing lots of empathy and encouragement.
The Financial Strain of TMJ Disorders
Treating TMD can stretch on for months or even years before patients really start to feel better. It is financially often very draining for the patient – but also for the doctor, who could make more money from quicker treatments that are less complicated and come with fewer headaches.
Most dentists are drawn to the quicker, easier procedures that bring in more money without the extra mental, emotional, and financial stress that are part of the TMD treatments.
Since doctors are humans too, who take care of their families, and go through all sorts of life difficulties, it is understandable that sometimes withdrawing from the most complex and demanding fields of medicine might be the only way to protect oneself from burnout or financial turmoil.
Doctors Shouldn’t Be People Pleasers
Patients are always looking for cheaper and faster solutions – not realizing the risks involved in speedy results, quick solutions, and putting pressure on dentists to provide what’s popular or fashionable – instead of what’s truly best for their long-term health.
Doctors are often in a very bad position – forced to choose between their profitability and medical ethics. Which should never be the case. It is the doctor’s duty to take care of a patient’s best interest, long term health, not giving in to their wants or fashion-driven demands. But since profitability is a prerequisite for clinic survival, it is sometimes very hard for doctors to refuse to fulfill a patient’s desires. It is both easier and more profitable.
As a result, there are very few dentists willing to take on the demanding field of TMD treatment, leaving a small group of specialists to handle most of these cases.
To add an insult to an injury – fast dentistry, superficial and quick aesthetic treatments contribute to development of TMD problems, increasing the number of cases, while decreasing the number of doctors capable of solving them.
How Can We Tackle These Challenges
Patient education and empowerment is the key. Doctors need to help patients understand what TMD is, how it affects their bodies, and why it’s important to stick to their treatment plans. When there is trust and partnership between doctor and patient, allowing open and honest conversations, outcomes will be better and patients will be better equipped to endure all the uncomfortable or bothersome aspects of the TMD treatment.
Also, we need to educate people that quick and fast solutions often do not take into account all the health parameters that will impact their long-term health and can create painful and expensive problems.
Choosing to treat TMD patients is not an easy or most profitable path for dentists – but it provides a unique sense of fulfillment. After a long and bumpy road of recovery, a patient’s joy and long term well-being is the best reward – both for the dentist and the patient, well worth the difficulties and tough choices along the way.