At your second appointment we will be delivering your lower removable anatomical dental orthotic. Prior to your appointment with us you may require a functional neck alignment assessment on the day of delivery.
Your appointment time will be 1.5 – 2 hours long. Please plan your time for this appointment accordingly. The same rules for makeup and facial hair apply for your second appointment.
Your neck alignment is important for helping find a proper bite. Necks that are out of alignment will affect the precision adjustments of the dental orthotic. This can be arranged with the dental team to coordinate a neck assessment prior to the orthotic insertion.
45 – 60 minutes of pulsing therapy to restore balance to jaw and neck muscles.
Dental orthotics are made by the dental laboratory as balanced as possible but only so much can be done prior to fitting the orthotic. Precision adjustments using the T-Scan digital occlusal sensor and the use of the relaxation therapy help us find the best bite for you at the time of insertion.
We will give you instructions for orthotic use and orthotic care. We will then book you back at an appropriate interval to have the orthotic further assessed and adjusted.
TMJ Disorder improvement does not all happen with a snap of the fingers. The body takes time to allow muscles to relax, TMJ inflammation to reduce, and the neck to stabilize.
TMJ disorder healing will be unique to your situation. The body needs time to improve. Monitoring healing and helping manage pain is important.
As your body responds to less strain, it will change in minute amounts and require follow-up adjustments to the dental orthotic.
As you heal and improve function and stability the orthotic will be checked and if needed adjusted to help match your improvements. These appointments will continue till bite stability can be obtained.
We will discuss with you the need for checking alignment with the NUCCA Chiropractor prior to the insertion appointment.
Choose comfortable clothes as you will be sitting during your appointment. Bring your work or computer for you will have 45 – 60 minutes to rest with our T.E.N.S. therapy pulsing jaw and neck muscles. No phone calls during your physiotherapy though.
If you can, do not wear makeup or apply lotion prior to your appointment. If you have to wear makeup please bring any replacement makeup you will need after your appointment.
We will be cleaning your skin so that our muscle monitoring gel pads and our physiotherapy gel pads have a clean contact with your skin.
We need clean and shaved skin for the contact of our gel pads. If you have large sideburns, a beard, or you just didn’t shave that day, we will need to trim for our testing. We do have an electric shaver available if you forget.
If you have a beard that cannot be removed then discuss options with us prior to this appointment. Goatees are fine as the gel pads are not placed on the chin area.
There will be follow up appointments usually scheduled at 3 week, 6 week, and 3 month intervals. These are just standard time frames. You can always call to book adjustment times in between as needed. Healing will be monitored for at least 6 months as the conditions warrant.
Once your bite is stable, then Phase 1 is done and Phase 2 can begin. See our section for Phase 1 and Phase 2 descriptions.
