# Jaw misalignment and bone loss?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jaw-misalignment-and-bone-loss/405922
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 29, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jaw-misalignment-and-bone-loss/405922 "2007-05-29T14:58:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Ceejaytee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ceejaytee/32/2956_2.png) [@Ceejaytee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ceejaytee)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jaw-misalignment-and-bone-loss/405922/1 "2007-05-29T14:58:18Z")

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My husband’s dentist claims that he needs thousands of dollars of (non-insurance covered) treatment to realign his jaw. The dentist claims that his jaw is misaligned, causing TMJ (he already wears a bite plate at night for that) and, more troubling, causing bone loss in his jaw. I have beeen googling pretty much all morning and I’m stuck. Most sites are for cosmetic or neuromuscular dentistry sites which have a vested interest in convincing people to have realignment.

The NIH says that realignment is not a good solution to TMJ, but says nothing about bone loss and misalignment in general. I’d like him to be armed with some more information before he seeks out a second opinion. Can jaw misalignment cause irreversible jawbone loss? Does realignment actually work?