 Hello, hello. Good morning. Andrea Trauske here with Dental Out Tudoring. In the video today, we will be talking about the TMJ joint because me and my Dental out members have our session this Sunday where we will be going over case studies all about TMJ. So pretty exciting, right? I think it's pretty exciting. So that's what we will be talking about if you aren't a member yet and you would like to become one, make sure to have a look at the link on the bottom. It's easy and becoming a member means you have full access to everything, mock exams, live tutoring sessions every Sunday. We have case studies. We have modules. I have teaching lectures, everything. You have full access to everything for a year to up to four years depending on if you're a student still in school. So if you would like more information on that, please let me know. Or you are more than welcome to look at the link that will be at the bottom. But let's talk about TMJ. So me and my members will be talking about this on Sunday because I was on my honeymoon for the past week. I've been off actually for a couple weeks. So we haven't had our sessions, but now we are back into it every single Sunday. But what I would like to talk to you guys about mainly is what you had to know for the board exam. So it's not as much as what you might think. In school, you probably had a full class on the TMJ area, right? So I will be showing some pictures soon. But you don't have to know all of that for the board exam, but my best words of advice is to look at the images, look at the larger images of the TMJ area. So think your mandible, your lateral area here, and just sort of know all of that because the types of questions that they will ask on the board exam will be the anatomy portion. So where is the ramus of the mandible? Where is the lateral ligament? You know, things like that. And then they might ask you if your patient's having TMJ issues, what could this mean? Could it mean they're clenching at night? How do you cure it? What are some of the symptoms? You know, things like that. So let me just show you guys. Let me share my screen. So remember how I mentioned that you should know some of the basic images of the TMJ. So these are the three main ones that I suggest looking at. So even if this is all you look at in regards to TMJ, you are off to a good start because any type of anatomy question they ask you, even if you don't know the answer per se, if you say memorize this image here, here I'll make it a little bit larger for you. Let's say you guys memorize, here I'm just going to move that one out of the way, let's say you guys memorize this big image here. You will know sort of what that area is. So they could ask you something like, where is your lateral ligament and how does that involve your TMJ area? Because a lot of people think that the TMJ area is just this area here. But when you're talking about your TMJ joints specifically, you are looking at your whole mandible, the condyle area here, and all along here. Because if the patient is having any issues, it's not over here where they're having the main issues, it's actually in the muscle area on the side here. So look at this image here. So this is where they would be having the issues. It's not because they're having issues here, although that's usually where the pain starts. But it's actually happening up here. So their muscles, their ligaments are damaged in some way, or they're not working properly, or they're overworked, you know, something like that. So memorize these right here. Now I do have this image actually for my dental L members, slide 26. So if you haven't seen that yet, have a look under the TMJ case study session slide 26. We are going over this on Sunday. So it's not in the membership login area yet, but soon it will be. But so this is just something to kind of look at and memorize. So then that way, if they do ask you an anatomy question, you have a pretty good idea. There are a lot of images out there where you might be thinking, oh, wow, like they're talking about all kinds of things. But try not to get too complicated because on the board exam, they will not ask you complicated questions for this topic because they have so many other things that they want you to know. But when it comes to having to work in an office, you will get a lot of patients who have TMJ issues. So it is also good to have an idea of where everything is coming from. And that brings me to my next image over here. See how it's showing your ligament, condyle inside the ligaments, and then muscles sort of interior to that. So your condyle is the main thing that you need to know for your TMJ area because typically if the patient's having any issues, it means the condyle isn't functioning as it should. And that's usually from their ligament around it, or their disc on top of it is either a lot thinner, or it's broken, or it's damaged in some way. So any time, well, not any time, but usually when there's a TMJ issue, it's because either there's ligament or their disc near the condyle is affected. Now, this isn't something that you would know simply by looking at the patient. A panorex x-ray helps, plus to be seen by a specialist to have a look also. But keep in mind that even if your patient's having TMJ issues, surgery is the last step because having to go inside here, having to look at the muscles and the ligaments is pretty invasive. And that's not something that a lot of surgeons will do. If a patient's having TMJ issues, the first thing that they typically say or ask is if they're wearing a nightguard. If the patient says no, they have to be wearing a nightguard for at least a couple years because that can actually help to fix a lot of the issues depending on if that's the cause of their TMJ symptoms. So if they're clenching, let's say their teeth at night and they don't have a nightguard, then this area here will become sore and tense. But then as soon as they start to wear a nightguard, their jaw isn't able to clench anymore. So it could take a couple weeks. It could take six months. It could take a year. But that could actually get rid of their pain here if that's the problem. So imagine having to go under surgery and knowing that you did have to and that all you needed was a nightguard. So that's why they will tell you to wear the nightguard first. But let's say you have been wearing a nightguard for a couple years and nothing's working. Surgery is still the last thing that they will typically want to do because you don't want to go in there and make matters worse because this area I guess is a very delicate area. If that makes sense depending on the issues. So if it's the ligament, the disc, it could be the muscle. It's not as simple as simply cutting away the damaged area, okay? Because as you can imagine, things like that just aren't simple. So even if the patient is having pain, typically they talk about a nightguard. They could try to manage it with pain medications, but they don't usually undergo surgery ever. Unless they're in a lot of pain. But I've been in the dental profession now for almost 14 years and I've never had a patient actually go through the surgery. They try everything else first. But on the board exam, they will ask you more of the anatomy portion. So me telling you guys about the surgery part, the nightguard, that is more something that you should know for the real world as soon as you start working. But they will not ask those types of questions on the board exam. The board exam is more knowing the anatomy behind it and knowing that your TMJ is more than simply this area here, but it's pretty much all of this here. So it is how your I guess TMJ joint works with the mandible down here. Not the top part. So not your maxilla, but how it works with the mandible. Okay, so look up some images online. Try not to look too far into it because I don't want you guys to get too confused. But I do hope that that helped a little. And if you guys have any questions, please let me know. And if you are a dental out member, then I will see you guys on Sunday because I have some amazing case studies that we will be talking about and going through because I know a lot of you are taking the board exam soon. So we need to make sure that we know a little bit about the TMJ. So thank you guys so much for watching. And I will see you guys in the next one.