Brett Kelman and Anna Werner, CBS News April 4, 2024 A TMJ patient in Maine had six surgeries to replace part or all of the joints of her jaw. Another woman in California, desperate for relief, used a screwdriver to lengthen her jawbone daily, turning screws that protruded from her neck. A third in New York had bone from her rib and fat from her belly grafted into her jaw joint, and twice a prosthetic eyeball was surgically inserted into the joint as a placeholder in the months it took to make metal hinges to implant into her jaw. “I feel like Mr. Potato Head,” said Jenny Feldman, 50, of N ..read more

The Chronic Pain Research Alliance, an Initiative of the TMJA, focuses on advancing a collaborative and collective approach to the research, care and treatment of TMD and its overlapping conditions, including chronic low back pain. A recent study published in The Lancet found that by 2050, a 36% increase in total number of cases of low back pain is expected globally, driven by population growth and aging. To address the complexity of low back pain and its comorbidities through a whole-person model, the National Institutes of Health recently funded the Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research P ..read more

A longstanding priority of the TMJA and its initiative, the Chronic Pain Research Alliance (CPRA), has been to change the culture of scientific research to one that is more patient-centric and includes “patients as partners” on research study teams. It is vital that patients – who have substantial expertise and valuable perspectives from living with their medical condition(s) – be included in the planning and execution of research studies, as well as activities to disseminate study findings. Studies show that doing so benefits both science and the public by developing research questions that ..read more

Following the publication of the 2020 National Academies report on Temporomandibular Disorders, The TMJ Association collaborated with the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) to address a key recommendation from the report: “interprofessional education that teaches dentists and physicians about the unique knowledge and skills that each brings to the table and prepares them to work together as a team” – in the treatment of TMD patients.  In 2023, MCW, in partnership with Marquette University Dental School and the TMJA, organized the first interprofessional session, bringing dental and med ..read more

  In January 2023, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) in partnership with other elements of the National Institutes of Health, and also the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, announced the availability of funding for the design and implementation of a national, interdisciplinary, patient-centered research collaborative. The aim of the TMD Collaborative for IMproving PAtient-Centered Translational Research (TMD IMPACT) is to advance basic, translational, and clinical research to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Temporomandibular D ..read more

A $6 million award from The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has been awarded to the University of California, Irvine (UCI) researchers for their late- stage preclinical project, “Treatment of the TMJ Disc Complex.” Leading the effort will be Kyriacos Athanasiou, PhD, PE, and his team at Driving Engineering & Life-science Translational Advances at Irvine (DELTAi) in collaboration with Cartilage Inc. Joining him on this project are Jerry Hu, PhD, Ryan Donahue, PhD, Wendy Brown, PhD, MRSc, and Kiley Athanasiou, MBA. Caption: From left to right, Ryan Donahue ..read more

Last year we told you about organizing a TMD educational session with medical and dental students so they could become better informed about the jaw joint and associated muscles and tissues. This was significant because it made clear that TMDs are not strictly a dental problem, but are complex and multi-faceted. On January 30, 2023, second-year dental students from Marquette University Dental School in Milwaukee joined first-year medical students from the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) in the first combined TMD educational session that was held at MCW. The session was designed as an in ..read more

CBS News and Kaiser Health News recently investigated one of the many temporomandibular disorder (TMD) treatments that are on the market and sold to patients without evidence of safety and efficacy. Professionals and the public routinely get misinformation about TMD treatments, and this investigation portrays the reality of what goes on in this area and the effect of these devices on the lives of TMD patients. Dental patients complain of harm from an unproven dental device – Patients report irreparable harm by an unregulated dental device. An investigation by CBS News and Kaiser Health New ..read more

Last month we told you that dental schools were not required to teach students anything about TMJ until this year. But medical students are also limited in TMJ learning. Now we can report a project is underway to teach both dental and medical students about the jaw joint and Temporomandibular Disorders (TMDs), so they become better informed practitioners. This is significant because it makes clear that TMDs are not strictly a dental problem, but complex and multi-faceted. The project will ensure that students get accurate information about all the ways TMDs can manifest and what can be done ..read more

  Hello! My TMJ issues started one evening at dinner (in 2002) when I tried to chew a pistachio. My disc just shredded out. I had pain in my joint prior but nothing terrible. This was a nightmare! I had no clue what was coming. After that, I tried emergency clinics, my dentist, and finally an oral surgeon who figured it out.  He tried Arthroplasty to cauterize my disc back in place and that lasted about 2 weeks.  I went on vacation out of the country and it totally failed there.  Was unable to eat much of anything.  It was a total nightmare.  Came home and ..read more