TMJ Sufferers – There Is Help For Your Sleep Apnea

If you have an issue with TMJ, or your temporomanibular joint, life can be very difficult. Pain and discomfort for a person with TMJ problems can be immense – and not just in the facial and jaw areas – sometimes it can affect the entire body! Some of the common symptoms of a TMJ problem can include problems eating, limited jaw movement and ringing in the ears.

Obviously, when you are dealing with a TMJ issue, sleeping can sometimes be a problem. But when you not only have a TMJ issue, but obstructive sleep apnea, it can be a virtual nightmare, at least according to Dr. Mark Duncan, writing for the Huffington Post:

We have all seen the images of tools used to manage sleep apnea that require sufferers to sleep with a CPAP mask, making them look like a super villain or scuba diver. However, obstructive sleep apnea is a potentially serious condition. Sufferers experience obstructed airflow and stop breathing repeatedly during sleep, sometimes for a minute or even longer. This may happen from five times an hour to more than 100 in severe cases. The body is damaged by only 5 of these episodes an hour, and as we learn more, it appears that even minor episodes can cause chronic damage.

When breathing stops, the brain reacts to the situation by producing a rush of adrenalin which in turn quickens the heartbeat. Muscles in the chest then work to resume airflow and the person gasps for a breath and falls back asleep. This scenario is then repeated multiple times during the same night while the person never realizes what is occurring. That’s because they never really “wake up” but only experience a short pause in sleep. This pause destroys the normal sleep cycle cascade which is critically important to health and brain function.

The really difficult point comes as this: when you have TMJ issues, the likelihood of you being able to use a Mandibular Advancement Device or MAD, mouthpiece like the SnoreRX (reviewed here) or the VitalSleep is practically zero. When your jaw is misaligned, trying to force it somewhere that it shouldn’t be can be not only painful, but absolutely dangerous.

What’s crazy about TMJ issues is that in some cases, according to Dr. Duncan, sleep apnea can actually be CAUSED by a misaligned jaw joint:

More and more studies are showing a connection between TMD and sleep disturbances. In many sleep apnea cases, a misaligned jaw joint or TMJD, is actually to blame. This is because the tongue’s position is impacted by the alignment of the upper and lower teeth. When the teeth are misaligned, the tongue can block the airway as you sleep. This problem with the jaw alignment or malocclusion can cause a person to wake up frequently throughout the night.

Via: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-duncan-dds-fagd-dicoi/is-tmj-disorder-costing-y_b_11657326.html

So we have a problem. What do you do when you have a jaw problem that makes the most cost effective way to fight your snoring, a mouthpiece, practically unusable? Well, fortunately, thanks to the Good Morning Snore Solution (https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution), you just have to change your mouthpiece to a different kind.

Yes, because the Good Morning Snore Solution, or GMSS, does not actually alter the position of the jaw, TMJ users can actually use it. One of the key problems for most MAD snoring mouthpieces is that they tend to “lock” the jaw in place, or at least keep it from moving so that it does not slide back and cause blockage around the epiglottis in the throat. The GMSS is a tongue stabilizing device, meaning it focuses on holding the tongue forward so that it will not slip backwards into the throat.

The GMSS relies on suction from the mouth, working much like a baby soother, and does not require any kind of bite-down in order to function. Instead, as a tongue retaining mouthpiece (and one of the few readily available ones on the market), it focuses on maintaining tongue positioning. This means that a person with TMJ problems can actually let their jaw move naturally, which ensures the most pain-free scenario. This is also the reason why the Good Morning Snore Solution tends to work so well for people with dentures: there is simply no bite down to speak of.

Obviously, finding out that TMJ is not only related to, but may in fact cause snoring and sleep apnea, can be quite shocking for some people. But, that doesn’t mean that you cannot address the key, and most dangerous part of the equation: the sleep apnea. And the best way, at least in terms of anti snoring mouth guards, tends to be the Good Morning Snore Solution.