Open Wide For a Quick Fix

It's enough to make you swear off double-decker sandwiches and chocolate-covered caramels forever – painful arthritis that affects the jaw joint, causing the joint to click, lock and pop when you chew and making it difficult to open your mouth wide.

Typically, arthritis of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ or jaw joint) is treated with therapies like relaxation exercises, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or dental appliances to discourage grinding of teeth. When such treatments fail, some people resort to invasive surgery. However, a recent Israeli study suggests something much simpler and safer might work: arthrocentesis, or removal of fluid from the joint.

Doctors at the Hebrew University– Hadassah School of Dental Medicine in Jerusalem studied 36 patients with a collective 38 dysfunctional jaw joints that had not responded to conservative therapy and who had undergone arthrocentesis for diagnosis of their jaw problems.

Besides being a diagnostic tool, it turns out that, in most cases, withdrawing the fluid itself brought relief. Of the 38 joints that underwent arthrocentesis, 26 became less painful, and opening wide became a lot easier. What's more, the improvement lasted through an average year-and-a-half follow up.

The researchers say that arthrocentesis is a safe and quick procedure, which in many cases, can ease pain and return function to arthritic jaw joints without the need for invasive surgical procedures. Now there's news worth celebrating with a box of chocolate-covered caramels!

Source: Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Vol. 59, No. 10

Research Spotlight compiled and written by Mary Anne Dunkin