Can missing back teeth cause TMJ?

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Dr Muzzafar Zaman Dental Advice

3 min readJun 5, 2020

There are many theories of why patients are afflicted with TMJ and one of those is that it is caused by missing back teeth. The term TMJ is also commonly referred to as TMJ dysfunction syndrome, temporomandibular disorder or myofascial pain disorder.

There are no studies which exclusively point to the fact that TMJ is caused by missing back teeth. This is because TMJ dysfunction syndrome is complex and is multifactorial. Certainly, there are patients who present with missing back teeth and TMJ and when these teeth are replaced, it does improve the symptoms.

However, there are patient when the missing about teeth are replaced but the TMJ pain continues and even in some cases becomes worse.

TMJ dysfunction syndrome does have a strong psychosomatic emotional element to it. Stress plays a big part and patients may point out that the pain started when there was a sudden dramatic change in their lives such as changes in the job situation, money worries, family issues, health problems and other environmental change.

Certainly, replacing missing back teeth can help to reduce the tension in the muscles of mastication but treatment must be based on trying to reduce any psychosomatic issues and the use of dental splints. A dental splint is also known as a night guard and can be a soft one or a hard one made at the dentist.

The answer to the question, ‘can missing back teeth cause TMJ? ‘Is that we actually don’t know as it is a complex multifactorial condition. Having said that, replacing the missing back teeth may be part of the overall treatment plan for a patient. This, therefore, cannot be any guarantee that simply replacing the missing back teeth will cause the TMJ to disappear.

The pain may remain and even in some cases may become worse. Replacing the missing back teeth however may have other useful functions such as the patient being able to eat better, able to smile confidently and to protect the remaining anterior teeth from excessive wear.