Botox has not been approved by the FDA for use in TMJ disorders. Used in small doses, Botox injections can actually help alleviate some health problems espcially related to muscles and nerves. Research is under way to learn how Botox specifically affects jaw muscles and their nerves to determine if this drug may be useful in treating TMJ disorders in the future.

Botox could help TMJ?? That's a surprise. Next thing you know, silicone implants will relieve your pain too just kidding

Botox is being used "off label" to give temporary relief of TMD. Although the few doctors and dentists who are using it think most people will get relief from a vial, which should be done in 12 injections, 6 along the entire length of the masseters, some are advertising it as a cure, which it is not. And, you can't use it forever, since you'd lose your masseters.

Implants of replacement TMjoint discs were discontinued in the 1980's after high suicide rates among patients who were implanted for more than a year after the manfacturer had data saying that their profitable product had problems.

Dentists see the effects of bruxism and TMD on the teeth and reflexively start trying to repair the teeth, while occasionallly people too poor for dentists report new painfree lives as soon as they lose their teeth. Doctors and dentists are afraid to work on the real causes of TMD since there is not yet any blanket diagnosis or blanket cureall. Causes can come from so many sources, including bad bite, injuries, chronic pain or stress causing TMD, posture, stress, etc.

Even if Botox turns out to be tragically over-used for more than temporary relief and diagnosis, it is focusing doctors once again on the sometimes completely disabling, truly organic illness of TMD, which is a very good thing for our future, so don't despair! I have lost years being treated incorrectly for migraines, etc., or mistreated as a hypochondriac or ignored. Now that even some sleep studies include documentation of TMD, we know that it can make sleep an enemy (what could be more disabling?) and sometimes even reach 40 minutes of clenching per hour of sleep, which, compared to the daily sum total of approximately 20 minutes of food chewing, can't be ignored much longer!
Hang in there, and keep searching the internet regularly for new information, keeping in mind the caveats I have mentioned above!

botox is a very dangerous thing for tmd---ive looked at the research and looked at the side effects---i wont recommend anything i wont put in my own body and i will not put botox in my joint

I think it is important for people to realize that Botoxing is done to the jaw muscles, or masseters, in the cheeks not the joint. And there are many dentists, looking for a quick source of income requiring nothing but injections, some of whom unfortunately advertise it as a cure. It is not. Botox is only useful for temporary relief and diagnosis. In cases where it helps, people think that they are cured, but need to understand that in those few months of relief they must find out why they have TMD and work on curing its cause. Many dentists and doctors who botox masseters let people believe that it is a cure, which it is not. Some do not warn that temporary paralusis of the jaw muscles could require a liquide diet. It is never injected into TMjoints, nor near important nerves (frown, etc.) where you don't want even temporary paralasis.

Can you point to any specific side effects that make Botox dangerous to people who sometimes get their first normal sleep in many years of severe TMD? I can think of a side effect that is not dangerous, but can be surprising, after repeated Botox - after your cheek muscles are relaxed they atrophy, at least temporarily, giving a potentially sunken look to cheeks if they were severely hypoprophied. Because the use of Botox for this is off-label, there are only now clinical trials, which is why it is never paid for by insurance. A far greater problem, to me, is that so many dentists never even notice severe TMD, just filling and capping the destroyed back teeth, allowing it to become chronic.