Are you suffering from dizziness, earaches, jaw pain, or other causes of discomfort? While many people experience these symptoms, they might also suffer from chronic fatigue, irritability, ringing of the ears (tinnitus), difficulty swallowing, and other symptoms associated with temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD). These pain cases often go unrecognized in your family doctor’s office because their standard of training does not often require them to learn about the relationship between teeth, jawbones, and the alignment of the jaws to the rest of the body.

By visiting San Francisco Center of TMJ and Sleep Apnea, we can help you find relief from your jaw pain and discomfort through the availability of trigger point injection therapy. Let’s take a look at how this treatment option works.

What are Trigger Point Injections?

With this form of therapy, knots, or trigger points, are broken up in order to provide relieve from muscle fatigue, strain, injury and overuse, including teeth grinding or clenching. Trigger points can often remain dormant and not produce any symptoms. However, once the trigger points become active, they are capable of producing intense muscle pain.

Trigger point injections cause pain reduction and relaxation in muscle groups. This is particularly true for muscle groups that refer pain from one specific area to other areas of the head, neck, and even the upper shoulder areas. In order to relieve pain, small quantities of an anesthetic and anti-inflammatory medication will be injected directly into the painful, sore, tense, inflamed, stiff muscle groups.

In order for trigger point injections to be successful, it is important to utilize a series of injections. Treatment sessions can be spaced weekly, with about three to four total sessions to take place for proper relief from TMD pain. Patients who suffer from debilitating effects of jaw pain benefit greatly from the use of trigger point injection therapy. With the availability of trigger point injections, combined with other forms of treatment, long-term management of TMD is in sight.

Contact San Francisco TMJ and Sleep Specialist Dr. Larson and his team to learn more about trigger point injection therapy for the treatment and management of TMD, and other sources of pain.