The temporomandibular joint works together with the facial bones and various muscles to allow opening and closing of the mouth, as well as left-right, forward-back and rotation movements, thus playing an extremely important role in the functionality of the stomatognathic system.
The most common causes that can disturb the good functionality of the joint are a deficient bite, stress or wear of the joint through excessive clenching/grinding of the teeth, excessive chewing of gum, or preferential chewing of food on one side only.
Problems in the jaw joint in turn cause tension in the facial muscles, resulting in pain. A recent study shows that almost 90% of recurrent headaches are due to TMJ problems and that 25% of the population presents at least one form of joint condition.
In early cases, treatment of joint pain may involve only lifestyle and diet changes. These changes are meant to reduce the degree of wear and trauma to the joints and allow their natural healing. However, in more advanced cases an interdisciplinary approach is needed (neurologist, orthodontist, prosthodontist, physiotherapist).
Specialist studies describe a revolutionary treatment, the PRF technique, developed as early as the 2000s in France. It has been improved over the last 20 years and used more and more frequently in many branches of medicine.
As regards the temporomandibular joint, treatment is based on intra-articular infiltration of platelet-rich plasma obtained from the patient's blood by centrifugation, resulting in a preparation concentrated in factors beneficial to healing and regeneration, which is injected into the joint capsule. It has no added chemical compounds, which significantly reduces the risks of rejection or allergy. It contains the information needed to form new tissue and releases specific growth factors. Each of these factors plays an important role in new vascularisation (formation of blood vessels) and in tissue healing. Once applied directly to the treatment area, the platelet-rich suspension causes the tissue regeneration process to accelerate considerably.