What is Dental TENSing? It’s a concept that has been used therapeutically as a way to relax your muscles with electricity. It is generally associated with Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD) patients and is a form of Neuromuscular Dentistry.
Initially used for headaches and other pains, electrical stimulation has been a method for pain relief for a very long time. In modern dentistry, dentists are using a low frequency device called transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (T.E.N.S.) which relaxes the muscles in your face and jaw by delivering gentle electrical stimulation through the nerves that control the muscles of facial expression and chewing.
There are many benefits to undergoing Dental TENSing. It benefits you by assisting in the fitting of dentures and relieves tension headaches and neck pain due to poor jaw alignment. By relaxing the muscles, TENSing allows us to determine a muscularly-oriented jaw to skull relationship and it closes the jaw through space to a position which is most compatible with relaxed muscles.
The stimulus is painless, though it can be uncomfortable at first as it causes your facial and jaw muscles to twitch. The process takes about 60 minutes before your muscles are truly relaxed. After the twitching or pulsing of the muscles, you are likely to feel calm, unknotted, and even tired from the massaging of the jaw.
Muscles that become tense and could affect the alignment of your jaw are the temporal bone, the masseter muscle, the condyle, and the mandible.
If you are experiencing pain of the jaw or skull, you could be a candidate for Neuromuscular Dentistry. For more information on Neuromuscular Dentistry or to see if you are a candidate, make an appointment today. For more information on Dental TENSing or dental therapy, contact C & C Dentistry at 512.263.8900.