Cosmetic Dentistry Blog

What is TENS?

Transcutaneous Electrical Neural Stimulation (TENS) is a term given to battery operated instruments that provide a gentle painless electrical stimulus through the skin to nerve pathways. At Dream Smile Dental, we use ultra-low frequency TENS to deliver a stimulus through the nerve pathways of the head and neck. These gently exercise the muscles controlled by those nerves, and causes the muscles of the head and neck to relax.

How are muscles related to dentistry?

Head, neck and jaw muscles play a very important role in your dental health. Different muscles come into play for posturing, opening, and closing the jaw and swallowing. The muscles that keep your jaw from falling open are small and go from the jaw upward through the cheeks, into the forehead and around the ear. If your teeth don’t fit together properly, these muscles are over-worked. Subconsciously holding these muscles tense for a long time can result in muscles spasms, and tension. Tense muscles restrict blood flow and oxygen to those muscles, and also prevent the washing away of waste products like lactic acid. This eventually leads to headaches or other head and neck pain.

Can’t I just relax these muscles?

No. If your teeth don’t fit together correctly, you subconsciously hold your jaw in a position that often causes muscled tension. It is very difficult to change this on your own and often requires a lot of training. Ultra low frequency TENS relax the muscles of the head and neck.

How does it work?

Electrodes are placed on your skin over the nerves controlling the muscles of the head and neck. The TENS unit is attached to these electrodes. It delivers mild stimulus to those nerves every 1.5 seconds. This causes the muscles to react, and it causes the rhythmic exercising of the muscle. As time passes, these muscles begin to relax and blood flow through them is increased. Because it is repetitive it causes the rhythmic exercising of the muscle. As time passes, these muscles begin to relax and blood flow increases clearing away lactic acid build up and producing healthier more relaxed muscles, resulting in comfort and relief. In most cases, the muscles become relaxed after 45-60 minutes.

When does Dream Smile prescribe TENS?

If we are treating you for a dental issue where we want to relax the head and neck muscles in order to find your best bite, TENS is applied in the office. However, there are occasions when we will prescribe a small TENS unit for home use called the BNS-40. This is a much smaller version of the office  unit which applies the same stimulus to the muscles.

We may prescribe the home unit for the following:

•   To relax your muscles before you come to the office for dental treatment or analysis.
•   To relieve muscle tension pain.
•   To determine whether relaxation of your facial and neck muscles will lead to pain relief.

Dream Smile Dental was honored with one of the most prestigious Invisalign awards this year. After completing over 800 lifetime cases and over 100 cases in the last 6 months, Dream Smile Dental amongst only 15 other doctors in the world were given this status.

“We are very proud to have reached this point and worked really hard to get here. We are glad that our mission to help our patients has contributed to such a successful result”. –Dr. Ronkin and Dr. Shwartzman.

Properly aligned teeth are easier to brush and floss than crowded or crooked teeth. Properly positioned teeth can help gums “fit” more tightly around them, which may lead to better periodontal health. Properly aligned teeth also reduce the risk of expensive procedures required to repair the effects of abnormal force, such as tooth chipping, breaking, or wear; and can be less stressful on the supporting jaw bone and joints. As you can see, straight teeth aren’t only a cosmetic issue but a health issue as well. With the help of Invisalign in combination with neuromuscular orthodontics, Dr. Ronkin has helped many patients beyond just straightening their teeth.
 
Neuromuscular orthodontics can alleviate TMJ symptoms such as headaches, neck pain, back pain, ringing in the ears, tingling of the fingers and many more.
 
For children, neuromuscular orthodontics lays down the foundation for healthy development and prevention of sleep apnea, respiratory disease, heart disease and other illnesses.