The Written Remedy: Jaw pain can cost you
For those cursed with self-awareness, vase-tossing and foot-stomping isn’t always an option when the going gets tough. Many of the more subtle expressions of mental discomfort often occur unintentionally; things like hand-wringing, fidgeting, changes in breathing and the good old-fashioned jaw clench.
That’s right, folks, the jaw clench – and its cousin the tooth grind – are often unconscious outlets of our inner anxieties.
What might start as an innocent outlet for tension can later manifest into a dental or orthopedic problem, commonly referred to as TMJ. The acronym, which is short for temporomandibular joint disorders, or problems with the joint where your jaw connects to your skull, can progress from a jaw ache, to problems opening and closing the jaw, to a need for surgery.
Though the signs of clenching or grinding may go unnoticed for some time, they can make their presence known in a variety of unpopular ways: keeping a significant other awake at night, changes in tooth shape, run-of-the-mill jaw pain or four-alarm fire, strobe-light-in-your-brain jaw pain.
This isn’t rocket science: Call your doctor or dentist, right?
Sure, but be ready to fork over some cash.
Though you already hand over chunks of your paycheck for health insurance, The Man has likely determined that your excruciating jaw pain doesn’t fit within your health care benefit. Considered to have controversial causes and treatments, insurance coverage for the sometimes-debilitating TMJ is rather spotty and often is a mere fringe benefit that your employer can choose to provide for an added cost to all involved.
Though TMJ can have truly physiological causes such as arthritis (read: medical insurance coverage), its source is often considered psychological, which points a finger at your behavioral health insurance benefit. But, grinding can cause damage to teeth, which is a dental problem. Rather than pitting all the subcarriers of your insurance against one another, they’ve washed their hands of your jaw pain entirely, given you a pat on the behind and sent you on your way to pay out-of-pocket for any TMJ treatment.
Am I the only who’s confused?
Why should a problem profound enough to garner the attention of medical, dental and behavior health professionals be dismissed as “inexact,” when, instead, this likely speaks to the legitimacy of the disorder?
Our Western medical system is positively in lust with viewing health care in black and white.
Have a kidney problem? See a kidney doctor. Have a stomachache? Take stomach medicine. This mindset distinct to the Western world is in large part to blame for marginalizing disorders such as TMJ, leaving even more of our fellow Americans to choose between food and medical treatment – both of which should be basic human rights.
This philosophy persists despite an increasing number of studies from many facets of medicine touting the benefits of using multiple approaches to treat a single bodily complaint. These results should be evidence for treating TMJ as a dental, medical and psychological problem, for example. Instead, our all-knowing insurance companies have chosen the opposite opinion.
TMJ serves as an excellent example of why Western medicine deserves a kick in the shorts toward treating the whole patient rather than dividing us out by body system.
While we’re “reforming health care,” maybe our philosophy of patient care deserves a look, too.
Abigail Mackey is a registered nurse. For more quips and tips refer to her blog, “The Written Remedy” (thewrittenremedy.blogspot.com). Abby can be reached at amackrn23@gmail.com or on Twitter at @AbigailMackeyRN.