Justin Richer

So, you know, once you see it, you know it.

I look at the health of the bone and the position of the bones.

And so if there's not a lot of space in there, normal space for the cartilage to be sitting in, then the cartilage probably isn't sitting in the right spot.

You can also see the health of the bone.

And so inside the cartilage pad, there's synovial cells.

Synovial cells produce a fluid that acts like a lubrication, but also nourishment

you know, to the bone.

And so like, again, while you're functioning, you're talking, you're chewing, you're breathing, moving your jaw around to do those things, you have to be able to heal from normal function.

And so when that cartilage pad is not sitting in the right area, synovial fluid is not in the right area either.

You have a diminished capacity to be able to heal and you start to develop bone changes that you can see on an x-ray in a lot of cases.

And so it's all, you know, it's all related at the end of the day.

Treatment ranges from things as simple as occlusal appliances.

So like a thick Invisalign retainer that sits on the teeth and just takes some of the pressure off the joints, kind of like a knee brace, you know, would be on like a knee injury.

But you also have like...

minimally invasive procedures, like this procedure called arthrosynthesis, which really is just using some needle holes to inject water through the jaw joint, get rid of inflammation, get rid of some byproducts that are in there.

And sometimes we inject things into the joint like PRP, which is essentially like a stem cell injection.

We harvest some blood and concentrate growth factors from the blood

and inject that in and around the joint to help reduce inflammation.

People are injecting things like fillers that they use for lip off-label, obviously, but they inject that in the jaw joint.

Right.