Depew / Lancaster TMJ Pain and Auto Injury

Jaw or TMJ pain is a fairly common problem experienced by people after a car crash, and it can be tough for some health practitioners to diagnose the source of the problem. Complicating the matter, many times you won't experience TMJ pain until many weeks or months after a crash.

Dr. William Palmer has treated many individuals with jaw pain after an injury, and the medical research explains what causes these types of problems. During a collision, the tissues in your neck are often stretched or torn, causing ligament, muscle, or nerve injury. This can obviously cause pain in the neck and back, but since your nervous system is one functioning unit, irritation of the nerves can cause issues in other parts of your body.

For instance, with radicular pain, irritation of a nerve can cause tingling or numbness in the arm or hand. Similarly, it can affect parts of your body above the injury, like your head and jaw. Headaches after a collision are very common because of neck injury, and the jaw works the same way. Dr. William Palmer sees this very frequently in our Depew / Lancaster office.

Research indicates that the source of many jaw or TMJ symptoms begins in the neck and that treatment of the underlying neck problem can resolve the secondary headaches or jaw symptoms. The trick to dealing with these symptoms is simple: Dr. William Palmer will work to return your spinal column back to health, alleviating the inflammatory reaction, treating the injured tissues, and removing the irritation to the nerves in your spine.

Dr. William Palmer has found that jaw and headache symptoms often resolve once we restore your spine to its healthy state.

If you reside in Depew / Lancaster and you've been injured in a crash, Dr. William Palmer can help. We've been working with auto injury patients since 2002, and we can most likely help you, too. Give our office a call today at (716) 668-2225 for an appointment.

Ciancaglini R, Testa M, Radaelli G. Association of neck pain with symptoms of temporomandibular dysfunction in the general adult population. Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine 1999;31:17-22.

Brantingham JW, Cassa TK, Bonnefin D, Pribicevic M, Robb A, et al. Manipulative and multimodal therapy for upper extremity and temporomandibular disorders: a system review. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2013;36(3):143-201.