For patients and parents

Before you treat the bite, understand the joint.

Plain answers about jaw pain, clicking and bite changes from Dr. Mark Piper, a surgeon who spent forty years operating on and imaging the jaw joint.

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[Patient video, about 4 minutes]

Does this sound familiar?

These are common. Many have an explanation in the joint itself.

You have seen more than one dentist or doctor, and each gave a different explanation.
Your jaw clicks, locks, or no longer opens the way it used to.
Your bite feels different than it did a year ago.
Your child has had braces more than once, or has been told they need airway treatment.
You were told the pain is stress, or that nothing shows on the X ray.

The joint is the foundation

A hinge with a small cushion inside it

Your jaw joint holds a small cushion called the disc, much like the discs in your spine. When that disc slips out of place or wears down, the joint changes. The bite can change with it. In a growing child the face can develop differently. The space you breathe through can narrow.

Knowing the condition of the joint before treatment helps you and your dentist choose care the joint can support.

[Anomalous model: disc in place, then displaced]

Free tools

Understand your own symptoms

The Piper staging tool

Answer a few questions about your symptoms and see which stage of the Piper Classification they may suggest.

Start the staging tool

After an injury

Trauma history tool

If your jaw symptoms began after a car accident, a fall or a sports injury, record what happened and when.

Open the tool

Read

The patient library

Articles on the stages, on imaging, and on the questions worth asking before expensive treatment.

Visit the library

Free eBooks

Short guides on a single subject, free to read online.

See the eBooks

Children are the most missed patients

Children injure their jaws in falls and sports far more often than anyone realizes. A joint injured in childhood can change how the face grows. If your child's bite keeps changing, or their chin seems small, the joint deserves a look.

[Portrait]

Who is Dr. Piper?

An oral and maxillofacial surgeon who operated on and imaged the jaw joint for forty years. He created the Piper Classification, the staging system for jaw joint damage used throughout this site.

Understand your jaw joint before expensive treatment begins.

How the joint works, the Piper stages in plain language, when a scan may be worth asking about, and ten questions to ask before treatment.

We send education only. Unsubscribe at any time. Educational content only. This does not create a doctor and patient relationship.

Questions

What patients ask

Is this free?
Yes. The starter guide, the eBooks, the staging tool and the library are all free.
Can Dr. Piper review my case?
No. This is education, not a consultation or a diagnosis. Take what you learn to your own dentist or physician.
Should I have an MRI?
The starter guide explains when an MRI of the jaw joint may be worth discussing with your clinician, and what to ask for.
Is this for parents too?
Yes. Much of what matters most concerns children.

Your pain is real. It is in your head, just not made up in your brain.

Get the free starter guide