Pains, popping, frictions?
Dental rehabilitation allows for the elimination of many issues in the craniofacial area. It'll help you too!
What is dental physiotherapy (dental rehabilitation)?
It's a comprehensive therapeutic action within temporomandibular joints, muscles of the masticatory organ and related organs of the oral cavity and facial skeleton. All the above-mentioned elements form an apparatus, enabling us to speak, bite, chew, swallow, and breathe.
When any of these activities is disrupted, the comfort of life diminishes significantly. This is when the intervention of a dental physiotherapist becomes necessary. The physiotherapist:
- will help to reduce or eliminate tensions, pains or popping,
- will restore correct joint mobility,,
- will reduce the risk of future complaints.
By whom is dental rehabilitation carried out?
One should bear in mind that dental rehabilitation does not involve only tissues and joints of the face but also the spine and pelvis. The connection between lesions within temporomandibular joints, postural disorders (scoliosis) and foot disorders (flat feet) can come as a surprise to patients, but not to specialists. Therefore, physiotherapy requires the cooperation between several people from various specialities - among them a dentist, prosthodontist, orthodontist and physiotherapist.
When is dental physiotherapy necessary?
- stress,
- teeth grinding (bruxism),
- lack of back teeth,
- arthritis,
- pain in teeth, mandible, jaw, oral cavity, face, head,
- popping and leaping within temporomandibular joints,
- problems with swallowing, chewing, yawning, opening and closing the mouth,
- mechanical trauma, such as those caused by a fall, hit etc.,
- tinnitus and clogged ears,
- watery eyes,
- a feeling of the pressure behind an eyeball,
- malocclusions and postural disorders,
- exposure of tooth necks,
- enamel cracks or tooth abrasion,
- postoperative states within masticatory organ,
- tumours,
- degenerative changes.
What does a visit to a dental physiotherapist look like?
Initially, a patient history, clinical and functional assessment will be taken. Subsequently, the physiotherapist, through manual therapy procedures such as:
- mobilisation of soft tissues inside and outside of the mouth,
- mobilising techniques performed on the spine,
- deep tissue massage
will relax muscles of the stomatognathic system.
The masticatory organ should always be treated comprehensively and cannot be separated from the rest of the body. Then exercises are introduced to improve proprioception (deep sensation). Much attention is paid to the patient's education and teaching them to do exercises individually at home. The following methods are also used in the work of the physiotherapist:
- Kinesio taping - colourful tapes used in this method resemble human skin. By activating lymph flow, they aid in the healing of inflammation and oedema. Speech therapists also use them in therapy with patients,
- Dry needling- involves inserting a thin acupuncture needle into the muscle.
How quickly are the effects of dental rehabilitation visible?
Each patient is different and has various complaints and defects. Therapy should be as individualised as possible. Thus, it is difficult to determine when the expected effect will be achieved. However, it's certain that after the first visit, one can expect reduced jaw pain in the ear area and increased range of joint mobility when eating and yawning. Each subsequent visit will bring relaxation of the neck and face muscles, so that persistent headaches, which are usually mistaken for migraines, will cease.
