New Article ties Joint hypermobility syndrome to migraines. This has long been known to be a factor in TMJ disorders and associated headaches.

Neuromuscular Dentist in Chicago, IL Accepting Patients Nationwide & Worldwide

Posted: January 5, 2017
Authored by:

Studies have shown that hypermobility syndrome is associated with chronic headache disorders. This new study shows that 75% of study group with the syndrome had migraines compared to only 43% of controls.

Patients with Chronic Daily Headaches, Migraines, Tension-type headaches, myofascial pain and associated headaches, atypical migaine, classic migraine almost always are headaches related to the masticatory system, the trigeminal nerve and TMJ disorders(TMD). These problems are often best addressed by the use of a diagnostic neuromuscular orthotic that has been shown in various studies to give some improvement in close to 100% of patients. Almost all studies of orthotics (of all types) show better then 50 % of patients experiencing considrable improvement and in my experience neuromuscular orthotics are far superior to the typical orthotic. Patients with migraines and/or muscular headaches would be well advised to consider temporomandibular disorders as part of a differential diagnosis.

Unfortunately for most patients with migraines neurologists will usually begin with drug trials in spite of side effects and statistically lower response rates. Patients usually turn to neuromuscular dentistry after years of suffering. often the suffering was needless. Most physicians are not well informed about the field of neuromuscular dentistry.

Recent articles from the International Acadery of Dental Research have done an enormous disservice to patients by promoting the psychological and biosocial aspects of chronic pain strongly supporting the notion that drug therapy should precede occlusal therapy. This is a biased view that is particularly destructive to patients labeling their pain as a psychosocial disorder to be treated by drugs ignoring the underlying neuromuscular systems and trigemino-vascular connections that are best treated by neuromuscular orthotics.

I have listed a few of the 211 PubMed.gov abstracts below that are revealed by searching PubMed with these search terms; joint hypermobility , tmj

The study showed that "The adjusted odds ratio for the prevalence of migraine was 3.19 in JHS patients" and that " The rate ratios for migraine frequency and headache-related disability were 1.67 for JHS patients"

The authors stated "Our study suggests that JHS is a clinical disorder strongly associated with an increased prevalence, frequency, and disability of migraine in females."

Hypermobility symptom is a major risk factor for TMJ (TMD) disorders

Cephalalgia. 2011 Feb 2. [Epub ahead of print]
Joint hypermobility syndrome: A common clinical disorder associated with migraine in women.
Bendik EM, Tinkle BT, Al-Shuik E, Levin L, Martin A, Thaler R, Atzinger CL, Rueger J, Martin VT.

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, USA.
Abstract
Preliminary studies suggested that headache disorders are more common in patients with joint hypermobility syndrome (JHS). The objectives of this study were to determine if the prevalence, frequency, and disability of migraine differ between female patients with JHS and a control population. Twenty-eight patients with JHS and 232 controls participated in the case-cohort study. Participants underwent a structured verbal interview and were assigned a diagnosis of migraine based on criteria of the International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd Edition. The primary outcome measures were the prevalence, frequency, and headache-related disability of migraine. Logistic regression was used for the prevalence analysis and Poisson regression for the frequency and disability analyses. Results indicated that the prevalence of migraine was 75% in JHS patients and 43% in controls. The adjusted odds ratio for the prevalence of migraine was 3.19 (95% CI 1.24, 8.21] in JHS patients. The rate ratios for migraine frequency and headache-related disability were 1.67 (95% CI 1.01, 2.76) and 2.99 (95% CI 1.66, 5.38), respectively, for JHS patients. Our study suggests that JHS is a clinical disorder strongly associated with an increased prevalence, frequency, and disability of migraine in females.

PMID: 21278238 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Acta Odontol Scand. 2010 Sep;68(5):289-99.
Risk factors associated with incidence and persistence of signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders.
Marklund S, Wänman A.

Department of Odontology, Umeå University, Sweden. susanna.marklund@odont.umu.se
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To analyze whether gender, self-reported bruxism, and variations in dental occlusion predicted incidence and persistence of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) during a 2-year period.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study population comprised 280 dental students at Umeå University in Sweden. The study design was that of a case-control study within a 2-year prospective cohort. The investigation comprised a questionnaire and a clinical examination at enrolment and at 12 and 24 months. Cases (incidence) and controls (no incidence) were identified among those without signs and symptoms of TMD at the start of the study. Cases with 2-year persistence of signs and symptoms of TMD were those with such signs and symptoms at all three examinations. Clinical registrations of baseline variables were used as independent variables. Odds ratio estimates and 95% confidence intervals of the relative risks of being a case or control in relation to baseline registrations were calculated using logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS: The analyses revealed that self-reported bruxism and crossbite, respectively increased the risk of the 2-year cumulative incidence and duration of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) signs or symptoms. Female gender was related to an increased risk of developing and maintaining myofascial pain. Signs of mandibular instability increased the risk of maintained TMD signs and symptoms during the observation period.

CONCLUSION: This 2-year prospective observational study indicated that self-reported bruxism and variations in dental occlusion were linked to the incidence and persistence of TMJ signs and symptoms to a higher extent than to myofascial pain.

PMID: 20528485 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

J Orofac Pain. 2009 Fall;23(4):303-11.
Evaluation of the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders for the recognition of an anterior disc displacement with reduction.
Naeije M, Kalaykova S, Visscher CM, Lobbezoo F.

Department of Oral Kinesiology, Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), Research Institute MOVE, University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. m.naeije@acta.nl
Comment in:

J Orofac Pain. 2009 Fall;23(4):312-5; author reply 323-4.
J Orofac Pain. 2009 Fall;23(4):320-2; author reply 323-4.
J Orofac Pain. 2009 Fall;23(4):316-9; author reply 323-4.
Abstract
The aim of this Focus Article is to review critically the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) for the recognition of an anterior disc displacement with reduction (ADDR) in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). This evaluation is based upon the experience gained through the careful analysis of mandibular movement recordings of hundreds of patients and controls with or without an ADDR. Clinically, it is a challenge to discriminate between the two most prevalent internal derangements of the TMJ: ADDR and symptomatic hypermobility. It is due to the very nature of these derangements that they both show clicking on opening and closing (reciprocal clicking), making reciprocal clicking not a distinguishing feature between these disorders. However, there is a difference in timing of their opening and closing clicks. Unfortunately, it is not feasible to use this difference in timing clinically to distinguish between the two internal derangements, because it is the amount of mouth opening at the time of the clicking which is clinically noted, not the condylar translation. Two other criteria proposed by the RDC/TMD for the recognition of an ADDR are the 5-mm difference in mouth opening at the time of the opening and closing clicks, and the detection of joint sounds on protrusion or laterotrusion in case of non?reciprocal clicking. These, however, run the risk of false-positive or negative results and therefore have no great diagnostic value. Instead, it is recommended that the elimination of clicking on protrusive opening and closing be examined in order to distinguish ADDRs from symptomatic hypermobility.

PMID: 19888478 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. 2009 Jun;107(6):e54-7.
Joint hypermobility and disk displacement confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging: a study of women with temporomandibular disorders.
Sáez-Yuguero Mdel R, Linares-Tovar E, Calvo-Guirado JL, Bermejo-Fenoll A, Rodríguez-Lozano FJ.

Faculty of Medicine, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain. mrosario@um.es
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to test whether or not there is an association between generalized joint hypermobility (measured using the Beighton score) and temporomandibular joint disk displacement in women who had sought medical attention for temporomandibular disorders (TMD).

STUDY DESIGN: We studied 66 women who were attending the clinic for TMD. The patients were examined for joint hypermobility, and Beighton scores were calculated. When it was suspected that a patient suffered arthropathic complaints, magnetic resonance imaging of both temporomandibular joints was performed with the mouth closed and at maximal opening. The Pearson chi-squared test was used to test for an association between generalized joint hypermobility and disk displacement.

RESULTS: We were unable to confirm the existence of an association between generalized joint hypermobility and temporomandibular joint disk displacement in women (chi(2) = 1.523; P = .02).

CONCLUSION: Generalized joint hypermobility may be a factor related to TMD, but we did not find an association between generalized joint hypermobility and anterior disk displacement in women.

PMID: 19464645 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Eur J Oral Sci. 2008 Dec;116(6):525-30.
Association between generalized joint hypermobility and signs and diagnoses of temporomandibular disorders.
Hirsch C, John MT, Stang A.

Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. christian.hirsch@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Comment in:

J Evid Based Dent Pract. 2010 Jun;10(2):91-2.
Abstract
The aim of this study was to analyze whether generalized joint hypermobility (GJH) is a risk factor for temporomandibular disorders (TMD). We examined 895 subjects (20-60 yr of age) in a population-based cross-sectional sample in Germany for GJH according to the Beighton classification and for TMD according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD). After controlling for the effects of age, gender, and general joint diseases using multiple logistic regression analyses, hypermobile subjects (with four or more hypermobile joints on the 0-9 scale) had a higher risk for reproducible reciprocal clicking as an indicator for disk displacement with reduction (Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.68) compared with those subjects without hypermobile joints. Concurrently, subjects with four or more hypermobile joints had a lower risk for limited mouth opening (< 35 mm; OR = 0.26). The associations between GJH and reproducible reciprocal clicking or limited mouth opening were statistically significant in a trend test. No association was observed between hypermobility and myalgia/arthralgia (RDC/TMD Group I/IIIa). In conclusion, GJH was found to be associated with non-painful subtypes of TMD.

PMID: 19049522 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Publication Types, MeSH Terms

Dentomaxillofac Radiol. 2010 Dec;39(8):494-500.
Evaluation of the lateral pterygoid muscle using magnetic resonance imaging.
D'Ippolito SM, Borri Wolosker AM, D'Ippolito G, Herbert de Souza B, Fenyo-Pereira M.

Rua Prof Filadelfo Azevedo, 617, apt. 61, 04508-011, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. silvia.dippolito@uol.com.br
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to evaluate the visibility of the lateral pterygoid muscle (LPM) in temporomandibular joint (TMJ) images obtained by MRI, using different projections and to compare image findings with clinical symptoms of patients with and without temporomandibular disorders (TMD).

METHODS: In this study, LPM images of 50 participants with and without TMDs were investigated by MRI. The images of the LPM in different projections of 100 TMJs from 35 participants (70 TMJs) with and 15 participants (30 TMJs) without clinical signs and symptoms of TMD were visible and analysed.

RESULTS: The oblique sagittal and axial images of the TMJ clearly showed the LPM. Hypertrophy (1.45%), atrophy (2.85%) and contracture (2.85%) were the abnormalities found in the LPM. TMD signs, such as hypermobility (11.4%), hypomobility (12.9%) and disc displacement (20.0%), could be seen in TMJ images. Related clinical symptoms, such as pain (71.4%), articular sounds (30.4%), bruxism (25.7%) and headache (22.9%), were observed.

CONCLUSIONS: Patients with TMD can present with alterations in the LPM thickness. Patients without TMD also showed alterations, such as atrophy and contracture, in TMJ images. Recognition of alterations in the LPM will improve our understanding of clinical symptoms and pathophysiology of TMD, and may lead to a more specific diagnosis of these disorders.

PMID: 21062943 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE