Botox®

Botox is often used as a cosmetic treatment that is used on the face for wrinkles. This treatment has a number of medical uses as well. The substance used in Botox has long been used in therapeutic medical treatments, and dental treatments are one of them. It is so minimally invasive and easy to get, it’s a popular way to take care of a range of dental and facial problems that patients often have.

Uses of Botox in Dentistry

Treating high lip lines with this cosmetic is just one dental use of it. It can also be used to treat TMJ disorders, teeth grinding, and shifting muscles of the jaw that affect the way dentures fit, among other issues. When patients have a high lip line, it can affect the way their smile line looks. With this quick, injectable treatment, the lip muscles can be relaxed so that the patient is happier with their smile.

It’s common to use Botox when a patient has lived without teeth for a while and the muscles of the lips have repositioned themselves because of the different dimensions in the mouth. Botox can be used to relax those muscles and to retrain them to fit around dentures so that the patient is better able to wear them.

When a patient has a TMJ disorder, or temporomandibular joint disorder, Botox can be helpful for treating the pain that this condition can cause. Getting injections of Botox can ease the muscular hyperactivity that causes it.

This is a great therapy for patients who struggle with TMJ disorders and need pain relief. It’s a fast way to offer that relief, and it’s highly effective. If you have a hard time opening your mouth, your jaw clicks when you do, or have pain in the joint, you may have this disorder.

If you have bruxism, or grinding of the teeth, it can cause a lot of damage to the teeth. The muscular contractions that cause it can lead to pain and soreness as well as the damage done to teeth. With Botox therapy, the force of those contractions can be lessened so that the teeth don’t grind together. Botox is often used alongside night guards to treat this problem.

A Newer Dental Therapy

There are other benefits to using Botox as well, as determined by the dentist. Botox has been gaining in popularity for dental problems for a number of reasons. One is that it is effective therapy for many conditions that once had little in the way of treatment available, such as TMJ disorders.

There are new treatments involving Botox that are being discovered regularly, so it may soon be available for treating other dental conditions. It can also help with some of the cosmetic needs of dental patients and can help in some cases when there are black triangles visible between a patient’s teeth.

Botox may be relatively new at treating these types of dental problems, but Botox itself has been proven safe and effective and has been in use for decades. While there are a lot of myths about Botox floating around, it’s a minimally-invasive way to treat a wide range of problems and requires no downtime at all required.