Survey of TMJ Disorder Sufferers Compares How Well Different TMJ Treatments Work - Holistic Technologies
Arlington, Massachusetts (PRWEB) July 08, 2013 -- The majority of pain symptoms that TMJ disorder sufferers experience are recognized to stem from nighttime teeth clenching, and professionals and consumers try all kinds of things to reduce how much TMJ sufferers clench at night. In a survey of over 1000 TMJ disorder sufferers conducted over the world-wide web, consumers who had tried one or more of 16 different methods to reduce pain and suffering associated with TMJ disorder were asked to rate the effectiveness of each treatment they had tried. Consumers rated each thing they had tried as either "not helpful", "helpful", "very helpful", or "made things worse".
The 16 treatments consumers were asked to rate were chosen from on-line TMJ discussion forums as the most popularly tried treatments. The treatments include traditional treatments (such as oral splints), less mainstream treatments (such as chiropractic and acupuncture), diet and lifestyle treatments, habit modification technologies such as nighttime biofeedback, and environmental changes such as changing to a different mattress or pillow.
Many consumers who participated in the TMJ treatment also wrote comments on why they chose the rating they chose. "The TMJ survey not only reveals which treatments are the best, but it also reveals which treatments can be harmful, and why", says Lee Weinstein, CEO of Holistic Technologies. "The three treatments which were most often found harmful by consumers are the three treatments most often prescribed by dentists, while consumers found one lesser-known treatment significantly more helpful".
The three graphics attached to this press release show the results of the survey in three different ways. In Figure 1, the TMJ survey results are sorted by the percentage of consumers who found each treatment at least somewhat helpful. Nighttime biofeedback comes out the clear winner, with about 90% of consumers who had tried nighttime biofeedback reporting that it was at least somewhat helpful. Mouth guards came in second with about 75% of consumers finding using a mouth guard at east somewhat helpful.
In Figure 2, the TMJ survey results are sorted by the percentage of consumers who found each treatment very helpful. Here, nighttime biofeedback was an even bigger winner, with about 45% of consumers who had tried nighttime biofeedback rating it very helpful, as compared with only 25% of consumers rating (second place) Botox very helpful, and only about 12% of consumers rating (fifth place) mouth guards very helpful.
In Figure 3, the TMJ survey results are sorted by the percentage of consumers who found each treatment harmful. "This sorting of the results is particular useful for assessing risk", says Weinstein. "For instance, if your dentist recommends surgery or occlusal adjustment, you can look at this graph and see that dental alterations (which include surgery and occlusal adjustment) has the most chance of any treatment of being harmful. Dental alterations are most often recommended by self-proclaimed 'TMJ specialists'. The risk is so high that the National Institutes of Health has a web page (http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/OralHealth/Topics/TMJ/TMJDisorders.htm) which warns consumers that there is no such thing as an accredited specialization in TMJ. The web page recommends against consumers having any irreversible procedure (such as dental alteration) done as a TMJ treatment. Comments from consumers who had been harmed by dental alterations often indicated that they had gone to what they considered very prestigious and high-priced dentists who "specialized in TMJ".
Not only are dental alterations and Botox high-risk, but they are not money-back guaranteed. “We feel it is basically unfair that almost all other TMJ and migraine treatments don’t even have money-back guarantees”, says Weinstein. “We have made SleepGuard nighttime biofeedback free to try. We feel no TMJ or migraine treatment should have to be paid for unless it works for the person using it.”
Interviews with people who reduced or eliminated TMJ pain using nighttime biofeedback can be arranged upon request for members of the press, and Holistic technologies makes raw clinical trial data available to university researchers.
Holistic Technologies LLC has been providing nighttime biofeedback relief to thousands of bruxism sufferers since 2007. The company website is http://StopGrinding.com. News and new information regarding the SleepGuard nighttime biofeedback may be received automatically through the SleepGuard news RSS feed.
Lee Weinstein, Holistic Technologies LLC, http://StopGrinding.com, 781-643-3281, [email protected]
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