Raabe Family Dentistry — TMJ Treatment and Dental Trauma After Car Accidents

Car accidents injure more than the spine and soft tissue. The jaw is a joint (the temporomandibular joint, or TMJ) and it absorbs collision forces just like the cervical spine. Jaw pain, clicking, limited mouth opening, and facial pain following a car accident are not incidental complaints. They're specific, documented, treatable injuries.

Dental trauma from collision impact (tooth fracture, avulsion, soft tissue injuries) also occurs and requires prompt evaluation and treatment.

Raabe Family Dentistry in Denver provides TMJ evaluation, jaw pain treatment, and dental trauma assessment for car accident patients. CCC coordinates referrals when jaw symptoms are part of the injury presentation.

Provider Contact

Website: raabefamilydentistry.com Phone: 303-321-4445

What Raabe Family Dentistry Offers

TMJ Evaluation and Diagnosis

The temporomandibular joint connects the lower jaw (mandible) to the temporal bone of the skull. It's a complex joint with a fibrocartilaginous disc that can be displaced or damaged during a collision, by direct impact, by sudden acceleration-deceleration forces transmitted through the neck and jaw, or by clenching during the impact.

TMJ evaluation establishes the diagnosis:

• Clinical examination: Range of motion assessment, palpation for joint tenderness and muscle tenderness, auscultation for joint sounds (clicking, crepitus, popping), and occlusal assessment (how the teeth fit together).
• Imaging: Panoramic X-ray for joint anatomy assessment, cone beam CT (CBCT) for detailed bone evaluation, and MRI when disc displacement is suspected. TMJ imaging identifies bony changes, disc position, and joint space alterations.
• History and symptom correlation: Establishing the temporal relationship between the accident and symptom onset, documenting the symptom pattern, and assessing functional impact (eating, talking, yawning).

TMJ Treatment

Following diagnosis, TMJ treatment at Raabe Family Dentistry addresses the specific dysfunction identified:

• Occlusal splint therapy: Custom fabricated bite splints (night guards, stabilization appliances) that provide the joint with a therapeutic position during the initial treatment phase, reducing joint loading and allowing inflammation to resolve.
• Physical therapy referral: TMJ dysfunction has a strong manual therapy component. Jaw joint mobilization, muscle treatment, and postural correction for the jaw-neck-shoulder relationship address the musculoskeletal dimension of TMJ dysfunction. Raabe coordinates physical therapy referral as part of the treatment plan.
• Bite adjustment: When occlusal discrepancies contribute to TMJ loading, selective occlusal adjustment reduces inappropriate loading of the joint.
• Pain management coordination: For severe TMJ pain or inflammation, coordination with CCC's pain management specialists ensures that both the dental and the musculoskeletal dimensions of jaw pain are addressed concurrently.

Dental Trauma Evaluation and Treatment

Direct impact in a car accident (airbag deployment, steering wheel contact, head-to-head-rest impact) can produce dental injuries:

• Tooth fractures: From minor enamel chips to crown fractures to root fractures. Fracture extent determines treatment: bonding for minor chips, crown for crown fractures, extraction or root canal for root-involved fractures.
• Tooth luxation: Partial displacement of a tooth in its socket. Concussed (shaken but unmoved), subluxated (loose), or partially displaced teeth all require evaluation and potentially stabilization.
• Tooth avulsion: Complete displacement of a tooth from the socket. This is time-critical: reimplantation within 60 minutes offers the best prognosis. If avulsion occurs at the accident, the tooth should be handled carefully and reimplanted or stored in milk or saline for transport to the dentist.
• Soft tissue injuries: Lacerations to lips, cheeks, tongue, and gingival (gum) tissue from impact. Evaluation determines whether suturing is required and assesses for foreign body retention.

Location

Raabe Family Dentistry 3033 E. First Ave., Suite 400, Denver, CO 80206 (Cherry Creek area, accessible from CCC's Aurora and Lakewood clinics)

When CCC Refers to Raabe Family Dentistry

Your managing physician screens for jaw and dental symptoms as part of the post-accident evaluation. Referral to Raabe Family Dentistry occurs when:

• Jaw pain is present: Pain in the jaw joint area, face, temples, or ear that developed following the accident and may represent TMJ injury.
• Jaw clicking or catching is reported: Joint sounds with jaw movement (clicking, popping, or crepitus) suggest disc displacement or joint surface changes.
• Limited mouth opening is reported: Difficulty opening the mouth fully (trismus) may represent muscle guarding, joint inflammation, or disc displacement.
• Headaches have a jaw component: When post-accident headaches have features suggesting TMJ involvement: pain at the temples, pain with chewing, or pain concentrated in the masseter muscle area.
• Dental trauma occurred: Any direct dental impact (cracked teeth, damaged dental work, broken teeth, or tooth loosening) requires dental evaluation promptly.

How TMJ Treatment Integrates with Your Care Plan

TMJ dysfunction doesn't exist in isolation from the rest of the accident injury presentation. Cervical spine dysfunction and TMJ dysfunction co-occur frequently. The jaw and neck share musculature and neural pathways, and treating each in isolation produces inferior outcomes compared to treating both.

Raabe Family Dentistry communicates directly with your CCC managing physician. TMJ evaluation findings and treatment plans become part of your complete medical record, integrated with the cervical spine evaluation, pain management plan, and physical therapy protocols.

For severe TMJ pain, coordination with CCC's interventional pain management team ensures that TMJ pain can be addressed with the same diagnostic and therapeutic precision applied to other pain generators.

Frequently Asked Questions