Since our number one goal is to get to the root of your discomfort and sleeping problems, we have limited our practice to TMD, Sleep Apnea and case finishing. That means we dont perform any general dentistry at all. Every day we focus on helping those with craniofacial pain and airway problems. We take patient care to an all new level of concierge customer service. Listed below are a few other reasons that set us apart.

Dr. Jeffrey L. Brown (link to team page) has extensive knowledge in the TMD/Sleep Apnea/Orthodontic field and is a sought after speaker around the world. He has traveled to South Korea, London, Dubai, Norway and Toronto lecturing about treatment options for patients and spreading the word about TMD and Sleep Apnea. Carrying this philosophy to his practice, he is incredibly passionate about making sure we have the best options available for our patients. To accomplish this, he has over 300 hours of training within the ALF academy, he is a Fellow with American Academy of Craniofacial Pain and is a member of several other organizations allowing for our practice to have access to new technology and advances. To make sure our patients are in great hands, every assistant on our clinical team is a Certified TMD Assistant through the American Academy of Craniofacial Pain. Our administrative team continues this level of care and excels in making sure your requests are handled efficiently while handling all aspects of scheduling, coordinating, pre-authorizations and insurance filing. Our team members attend conferences and trainings regularly so you the patient is provided and receives the best care possible.

Ourteam membersare current with the most up to date training on our equipment so you are cared for in a professional and highly effective manner. To diagnose and treatment plan, Dr. Jeffrey L. Brown performs a full examination of the TM joints, head, neck and facial region, as well as x-rays and MRI evaluations. Many doctors who help patients with TMD do not require MRIs. At Sleep & TMJ Therapy, we want to know the location of the discs prior to a treatment plan being developed. For additional diagnostic investigation, we use low radiation CBCT scans, airway analysis, digital scanning. All of which helps us to achieve an accurate picture, provide the best treatment plan, and achieve the optimal result. Our equipment is new and state of the art to ensure we are providing the most precise diagnosis and best treatment possible. Because of our intensive information gathering, patients withTMJ dysfunction, we are able to determine the pathological nature and extent of joint sounds as well as any injuries to the TM joint area. Afterwards, we can determine a realistic prognosis and treatment goals. Everyone wants to look and feel great and our team is ready to help. We are committed to providing you the highest quality service for yourTMD,Sleep ApneaorOrthodonticneeds.

With the use of todays advanced technologies, we take great pride in our ability to help each patient. Whether we are helping a child, or an adult achieve a better smile, corrected bite, or alleviate pain, our team can do this through our proven systems that works! Our screening process allows for prevention of a problem before it happens.

Many doctors try to handle all aspects of treatment themselves. In some cases, this works. However, in other cases, outside specialists are needed. Since Dr. Jeffrey L. Brown is known for helping patients with mild to extreme cases, he is not afraid to involve a team of doctors. It is our number one goal to get to the root of your symptoms and address the underlying problems. Many times, this requires the assistance of a team of specialists. Dr. Brown will guide you in the correct direction. Teamwork is a very important aspect of treatment since TMD and Sleep Apnea affects the whole body. A few specialists we work with are listed below:

As an additional courtesy for our patients, our administrative team will handle all necessary pre-authorizations and obtain health and dental benefits from your insurance carriers once the treatment plan has been established. This provides you a complete treatment plan before moving forward with any remedy. After treatment begins, the courtesy continues with filing your medical and/or dental claims at each visit so you can receive your reimbursements directly. Our goal with the filing process is to allow you and the doctor to focus on getting you better while we take care of the filing. This is just one of the many services we offer for our patients.

The team and I would like to offer special thanks to Dr. Stack, who, although is no longer with us, continues to inspire us from his dedication to help others over the course of his career. His belief in us has made our journey possible. Dr. Brown

Dr. Stack had been treatingTMJ problems, headache, face pain, ear pain and bad bites for over 40 years during his career. In that time, he had repeatedly encountered problems just like yours and treated them successfully.

He had a special interest in treatingTMJ disordersand how this treatment might also help Tourettes patients, particularly teenagers and preteens. Over the years, he noticed that the overwhelming majority of these patients had facial tics, eye blinking, eyelid tics, mouth tics, head nodding, shoulder shrugging and head tremors. He treated these patients asTMJpatients (jaw joint clicking, locking and limited mouth opening) for pain but also noticed all of these tics dissipating at the same time. When word started spreading throughout the healthcare community that he could get rid of these associated tics, Tourettes patients started coming. He was very successful in ridding them of these comorbid conditions.

His specialized treatment does not call for any psychotherapy or drugs; it requires only the wearing of a dental mouthpiece that is not noticeable to others. This mouthpiece realigns the lower jaw so that it is in a better position beneath the base of the skull and is no longer misaligned. Dr. Stack believed that the basis of most of the comorbid Tourettes Syndrome and other movement disorders such as Cervical Dystonia and Parkinsons Disease are basically a misalignment of the mandible to the skull base due to some type ofTMJ internal derangement.

TMJ and sleep disorders are very common but not really understood. This can explain why myths or misconceptions are out there. The other side of this coin is this is also commonly misdiagnosed because symptoms vary from person to person and are similar to other problems. One example of similarities is with Lyme Disease. This is caused by a tick bite and the symptoms could be: chronic headaches or migraines, jaw pain, and tingling in the hand or fingers. Notable, symptoms of TMJ disorder. The big difference is Lyme Disease does not have the clicking and popping or vertigo additional symptoms of TMJ disorder. There are other examples as well: Migraines, Trigeminal Neuralgia (short, sharp pain from touching of the jaw joint) or even a Ganglion Cyst (on the TM joint causing swelling and jaw pain).

Just remember all of us get sore muscles from time to time. The big difference is when the muscles in your jaw joints get sore and the soreness does not go away. This is when you should ask your dentist for a referral. Otherwise, you could be prolonging the unnecessary pain or soreness and allowing the disc to possibly become further damaged. TMJ disorder does affect other parts of your body. The myth of no popping or clicking means no TMJ disorder is not true. These displaced discs can cause other symptoms of neck pain, backache, loss of balance, or hearing loss with out the clicking or popping.

Another common myth is TMJ disorder is harmless and living with it will not cause problems. It is true this condition is non-life-threating but at the same time it should be addressed. Some possible development would be bruxism. This process causes grinding of your teeth and clenching wearing down your tooths enamel and can cause sleep issues. If the tooth enamel is worn down, then the potential of decay or tooth loss becomes greater.

For the sleep side of things, sleep can be interrupted by the clenching and grinding of your teeth. Interrupted sleep or waking up unrefreshed is a symptom of both TMJ disorder and sleep apnea. It is not considered just a sleep issue. The myth of sleep issues come with age is not exactly true. The aging process does decrease the tone in muscles and the airway muscles are not immune to this. The muscles in the airway no longer hold the jaw in the correct place and in turn the airway becomes restricted. Your body is now fighting harder to breath. The use of a CPAP is the only treatment for sleep apnea is another myth. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has determined the oral sleep appliance is very effective for mild to moderate apnea index. This index tells us how many times your sleep is interrupted within a night. The Epworth scale (tiredness level) in conjunction with apnea index can determine if the oral appliance will be effective.

An interesting myth, sleeping on your side cures sleep apnea, actually helps with sleep apnea but does not cure it. By sleep on your side, the tongue is not relaxed enough to obstruct the airway by falling back into the throat creating a blockage. The tongue is off to the side allowing air to pass through the airway. This is noted with mild cases of sleep apnea. The side sleeping is most definitely not a cure but recommended a lot for positional apnea.

There are so many more myths out there for both TMJ and sleep disorders. Always consult with your dentist or physician when it comes to these issues. You do want to address these symptoms because both these conditions will affect your brain and in turn effect cognitive functions, generating higher stress, and possible memory loss.