Jaw Complications After an Accident

Accidents can be life-altering. Car accidents, sports injuries, and all of the unexpected things in between that can damage our bodies can have serious long term impacts, even after we’ve finished healing. One of those impacts concerns our jaw. All injuries carry concern for how it will change our lives moving forward but facial injuries are often some of the most personal. Jaw complications after an accident can even affect other parts of our body we may not have considered.

Jaw Joint Vulnerability

Few people realize the complexity and vulnerability for the jaw and the jaw joints. The jaw joint, the temporomandibular joint, is the most complex in the entire body. Consider how often you might use it: while eating, chewing, drinking, swallowing, talking, singing. We’re constantly engaging the TMJ and that movement can be drastically altered with an accident.

Damage to the jaw can be hard to recognize. Not all accidents are catastrophic. Some accidents cause micro deviations in how the jaw is positioned. Those deviations in alignment can have a butterfly affect on a person’s health.

Risks of Damage 

Deviations in the alignment of the jaw can have a ripple affect and contribute to a number of concerning health conditions. Accidents large and small that cause physical damage to the jaw joint can lead to temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), a disorder with a wide range of implications including:

• Frequent migraines and headaches
• Trouble eating and speaking
• Teeth grinding
• Sleep apnea

These implications are multiplied when they go untreated or unnoticed. Without proper treatment, the risk for developing one of these conditions increases significantly because they’re allowed to get worse over time.

Accident-Induced Damage Corrections

If your jaw is misaligned or underdeveloped because of an accident, guided growth orthodontics may viable option for treatment. Using a specialty approach to orthodontics, the jaw can be gently and carefully realigned slowly over time in many cases without any invasive treatment measures. In some cases, accidents can affect a person’s appearance even if subtly. Dental appliances can help reduce those changes and restore a person’s face shape as well as their alignment.

Restoring Jaw Health After an Incident

Proper treatment can greatly reduce the damage caused to your jaw after a car accident, sports injury, or a physical altercation. For more information on TMJ disorder treatment and jaw guidance therapy contact Dr. Buck’s office at 425-361-7499 to schedule a consultation.