Jaw or temporomandibular joint pain is common after an auto collision, even when there is no principal trauma to the jaw. The disorder can be perplexing to health professionals, as, in many cases, the jaw signs or symptoms don't surface right away after the trauma, oftentimes developing many weeks or perhaps months down the road.
We've been treating auto injury patients since 1980, and can help you with any symptoms from a car accident, including TMJ pain.
New medical studies over the last ten years suggests that jaw pain after an auto collision in fact originates in the neck.
When your spine is sprained during a wreck, the pain signals travel from the vertebrae to your brainstem. Here, nerve fibers from many different regions of the body meet together before they pass to the pain hubs of your brain.
When these nerves converge, the impulses can get mixed up and crossed. It's akin to the arm pain experienced by a person having a heart attack. The nerve messages from the heart converge with the nerve signals of the arm, and the patient feels the discomfort in the arm instead of the genuine source.
The nerves of your face connect in the neck with pain receptors from your spinal column. When constant pain impulses from your injury overstimulate the nerve junctions, you can experience pain in other parts of your head, including your jaw.
And since the jaw is experiencing pain, it can cause the muscles in the head to tighten, causing more pain.
Chiropractic adjustments help by helping your body repair the primary damage in the spine, which then helps pain in other parts of your body.
If you've been in a car wreck, Dr. Helton is here to help. We can help pinpoint the underlying cause of your pain and formulate a plan of action to help you reclaim your health. We have helped many patients in Portland (Woodstock, Sellwood) recover from these types of problems since 1980 and we might be able to help you!
Call our office today at (503) 771-1974 for a consultation or for more information.
