Physiology

TMD is most often caused by a bad bite, or malocclusion, which causes unbalanced, unhappy muscles that are constantly in a state of spasm trying to find a comfortable position. When your lower jaw does not close on the correct path of closure, and the teeth do not come together properly, your body recognizes it, and the body elicits a subconscious action to attempt to find a comfortable position for your lower jaw to rest in. This subconscious action of trying to find a comfortable position is mediated by the Central Nervous System and is referred to as para-function. Some examples of para-function are clenching, grinding, and protrusion of the lower jaw. Within our brains, we have an area located in the Mid-Brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS) which serves as the brain’s “on-off switch”…the RAS is activated by para-functioning. Therefore, when we subconsciously grind our teeth at night during sleep, the “switch is turned on” in the RAS which makes one sleep even lighter & causes more grinding (bruxism) resulting in even poorer sleep which increases our stress which in turn lowers our accommodative capacity to handle stress! As you can see, this can be an ongoing, never-ending, negative feedback loop if the loop is not intercepted!