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Treating TMJ Symptoms with Carisoprodol

TMJ disorders involve the temporomandibular joint which is located on both sides of your mouth directly below your ears. You use these joints every time you move your jaw. In fact, you use your jaw more than any other joint in your body. Every time you speak, swallow, and eat you engage your jaw joints. This equals approximately 3,000 jaw movements each day.

People who have TMJ frequently suffer from TMJ headaches which are triggered when there is some problem or inflammation with the joint. The muscles around the joint can restrict to the point it is painful to open your mouth. Carisoprodol is commonly used to treat associated pain and to relax the jaw joint muscle.

Anti-Inflammation Treatment

You can use over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications like aspirin or ibuprofen to reduce the pain caused by TMJ flare-ups. Because the pain is frequently caused by inflammation, a general pain reliever may not be sufficient. You want a pain reliever with anti-inflammatory properties. The pain can be so intensive that you may experience nausea or blurred vision. Aspirin can reduce the inflammation which will help alleviate the pain.

Muscle Relaxation

You may also need to treat the tight muscles around the joint. It is possible to experience "lock jaw" with extreme bouts of TMJ. Muscle relaxants can help with this situation. However, if it lasts for an extended period of time or interferes with your ability to eat, you should seek medical attention. In some cases, a shot of muscle relaxant may have to be injected directly into the jaw muscle.

Pain Reliever

If you still have a headache after taking the muscle relaxant, you may need to take a pain reliever. It is best to take a general pain killer that does not treat inflammation. Treating symptoms you do not have can cause or increase nausea or dizziness. You also risk irritating your stomach or developing an ulcer when you take too much pain medication.

TMJ can cause long-term suffering. It makes it difficult to work and socialize. You may have difficulty sleeping or need to sleep sitting up to keep pressure off your jaw. In addition to treating flare-ups, it may be necessary to take maintenance drugs. Small doses of Carisoprodol can be used daily to reduce flare-ups so you can get on with your life. Be careful when using Carisoprodol because you can quickly build a tolerance to the drug.

Why have pain at all?

There's a whole bunch of people who claim we're the result of intelligent design. That means every aspect of the bodies we now occupy while on this Earth was in the original plan. So, for millennia, we've had to put up with pain when the designer could have left out the pain receptors placed all over our bodies or installed a painkiller chemical dispensation system. We got adrenaline to increase the body's performance. It would have been just as easy to give us something to calm down the pain. Would something as simple as an off-switch be too much to ask for?

So what's pain for? Well, it's a basic survival tool. Unlike a few insects that have eyes with all-round vision, we can easily be taken by surprise. As primates, we had a habit of walking through thick grasses and stepping on sharp objects or sleeping snakes. We were also prone to losing concentration at key moments and falling out of our trees. In our modern lives, we have surrounded ourselves with dangerous machinery. The price of not paying attention is injury. We've always been accidents waiting to happen. In this, it's pain that gives us the first warning signals if we're in trouble. More importantly, it tells us where the problem is and what kind of injury we're likely to have picked up.

Now you might say this is good so far as it goes, but why can't we switch it off when we've seen a doctor and got the treatment? The answer is simple. You and the doctor need to monitor the pain. If it starts to get worse, the treatment needs to change. It's the same if the pain starts to spread. If you have switched off the pain, there's no way you would know something different is needed. More to the point, if you switch off pain because you hurt your leg and then pick up a pan that's too hot, do you have to wait to smell the cooking flesh? All the rest of your body needs the pain reflexes to be working, otherwise you might accidentally injure yourself and make everything worse.

So let's be clear. There are no drugs in development that will switch off pain. Actually, no one is trying very hard to develop such a drug. Pain is too useful to want to switch it off altogether. In chronic cases where the pain in an inflamed joint is making life a misery, there's a legitimate case to be made for a selective pill to turn off the pain receptors at a specific location. But no one has any idea how that would be done. All doctors can do is treat the joint itself and hope the pain will reduce naturally.

This is all building up to a message you don't want to hear. We're an overmedicated nation. More people die through the abuse of prescription drugs than of heart attacks. This habit is literally killing us. We should accept more pain in our lives and do without pills. If you find this unbearable, Tramadol is the strongest drug you should take. Equally important, don't use Tramadol over long periods of time. This builds up tolerance, forcing a move to the opiates where the risk of dependence is more real.

Alternative pain management methods

When people experience any kind of pain the most obvious and common solution is using painkiller drugs. We are all used to these medications because they are effective and quite convenient to use. Modern day painkillers are much better than older drugs that were plagued with many side effects. Still, sometimes even the most sophisticated and safe to use medications can cause negative symptoms or aggravate other health conditions simply because there's no such thing as a perfectly safe painkiller drug. And if you happen to suffer from such an issue, there are some alternative pain management options that can be as effective as common oral pills. Make sure to try the following if your painkiller drug doesn't deliver the effects you need:

Heat and cold

This type of therapy is probably the easiest and most common in case of an injury. In fact it can be safer and more effective than some painkillers. All you need is a towel moistened with hot water held against the affected area for about 10-15 minutes. Just make sure to not cause a burn. Heat will intensify the blood circulation in the area and reduce inflammation. Cold on the other hand can numb the nerves in the area, so you can use it as an alternative. Warp a couple of ice cubes with a towel and hold against the area. This is the perfect drug-free first aid in case of trauma and acute pain associated with it.

Physical therapy

Physical therapy is another pain management option that will suit those who suffer more serious forms of trauma or joint conditions. With physical therapy a specialists manipulates the muscles in the affected area in a way to promote faster recovery and prevent the muscles from deforming due to inflammation. Physical therapy can be particularly helpful in chronic pain conditions causes by injury or joint issues but it can also relieve acute pain to a degree right after the trauma. But it may take a couple of sessions and won't work as fast as Ultram.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese practice that was known for centuries in China and has recently become quite popular in the US. Under this practice the body is covered with small thin needles that are applied to special spots that are believed to control the flow of vital energy in the body. Although the assumption may turn down the most skeptical people, numerous clinical studies have shown that acupuncture can actually reduce painful sensations with many chronic pain conditions like arthritis withing a couple of sessions. So it really makes sense to visit an acupuncture office if you need chronic pain relief. Just make sure that the specialist is a certified professional who knows what to do.

Electromagnetic therapy

Electric and magnetic therapy are used separately but address the same mechanisms in the body. Both these methods intensify the blood circulation in the area of application, which helps reduce inflammation and reduce the sensitivity of nerves that ultimately leads to pain relief. Whether achieved through application of low power electric current or magnetic field, this method is particularly useful in cases of joint pain and injuries. Of course, it may take a longer time to take effect if compared to drugs like Ultram. But on the other hand there are little side effects with this type of pain management.