[HN Gopher] New muscle layer discovered on the jaw
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       New muscle layer discovered on the jaw
        
       Author : giuliomagnifico
       Score  : 89 points
       Date   : 2021-12-27 19:21 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.unibas.ch)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.unibas.ch)
        
       | JimTheMan wrote:
       | It's always astonishing to find that the envelope of cutting edge
       | knowledge is sometimes far closer than you think.
       | 
       | IE, jaw muscles hadn't been figured out yet.
        
         | rbanffy wrote:
         | That really doesn't help with my faith in medicine. It's not
         | that doctors don't know a lot of things that work for a lot of
         | conditions, but when it comes to knowing why something works,
         | things get a lot murkier. I cut them a lot of slack because we
         | evolved by chance and there is no design documentation or even
         | clear requirements to work with.
        
           | xiphias2 wrote:
           | ,,That really doesn't help with my faith in medicine''
           | 
           | Better knowledge of anatomy doesn't help medecine. Better
           | knowledge of aging process and immunology is much more
           | important for increasing human lifespan and decreasing human
           | suffering, and the last 10 years gave us amazing improvements
           | in the knowledge part.
        
       | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
       | > In a previous edition of Gray's Anatomy, from the year 1995,
       | the editors also describe the masseter muscle as having three
       | layers
       | 
       | > Other individual studies from the early 2000s also reported
       | three layers
       | 
       | So not entirely new.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | DantesKite wrote:
         | Not entirely new, but apparently, not accepted by the medical
         | community.
        
       | DantesKite wrote:
       | "The arrangement of the muscle fibers, she says, suggests that
       | this layer is involved in the stabilization of the lower jaw. It
       | also appears to be the only part of the masseter that can pull
       | the lower jaw backwards - that is, toward the ear."
        
         | trelane wrote:
         | Seems a surprise that this has taken so long to be discovered,
         | as every motion seems to require two muscles--one to pull and
         | the other to relax/lengthen.
        
           | PaulHoule wrote:
           | It astonishes me how little help people can get for the very
           | common TMD so I am not surprised to find anything is
           | misunderstood about the functional anatomy of the jaw.
        
             | Nuzzerino wrote:
             | I've suffered since the age of 21, but the attacks are less
             | frequent these days (I'm 35). I do not take any painkillers
             | for it, even OTC. I have tried 6 or 7 "professionally-made"
             | mouth guards, some of which cost thousands. None of them
             | helped and would actually make it harder to sleep at night.
             | I instead deal with it by using heat, massage (full body is
             | key), exercise, and nutrition.
             | 
             | For the record, I am also blown away by how incompetent the
             | medical and dental professions are at treating this. Tap
             | your teeth on a piece of paper? Puh-leeze, that does
             | nothing when your joints or muscles shift at different
             | times of the day, and maybe 1 in 5 dentists actually know
             | how to properly account for that based on my experience
             | dealing with them over the years. And swear to god, if I
             | hear another licensed and credentialed dentist describe my
             | joint hypermobility as "your jaw is weird", I'm going to
             | shit a brick.
        
             | AstroDogCatcher wrote:
             | Yes. First experienced TMJ pain as a teenager and almost
             | overdosed on painkillers while trying to get rid of it at
             | 3AM. Still recurrs about 2-3 times per year, but I've now
             | learned to feel it coming on much earlier and start loading
             | up on codiene in advance.
        
               | mkl95 wrote:
               | I have been getting it 10+ times a year since my early
               | 20s. Whenever it happens it's as terrifying as the very
               | first time.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | PaulHoule wrote:
               | I had it a long time and was not sure the pain was
               | localized in the jaw (was it the neck, shoulders, back?)
               | or even the extent to which there was a physical lesion
               | or it was how my brain was interpreting things.
               | 
               | My dentist told me I was grinding my teeth and prescribed
               | a bite guard and within two weeks the pain got better but
               | became very definitely focalized in the jaw and I noticed
               | 'popping' as a symptom.
               | 
               | It has been about 1.5 years since the diagnosis. last
               | summer I went through a phase of throwing a lot of random
               | food into a pot and hitting it with an immersion blender,
               | getting shakes from Burger King whenever I felt like it,
               | etc. I lost almost 20 kg.
               | 
               | I have been eating more normally since, it doesn't bother
               | me very often.
        
               | xhevahir wrote:
               | What sort of bite guard did you use? I clench my teeth
               | like there's no tomorrow and I've discovered over the
               | years that any bite guard that doesn't completely cover
               | every tooth (on either the lower or upper arch) will
               | eventually result in a supra-eruption of the exposed
               | tooth, with drastic consequences for my bite.
        
               | jacobolus wrote:
               | For other folks not familiar with these abbreviations, ht
               | tps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporomandibular_joint_dysfu
               | n...
        
             | cjbgkagh wrote:
             | AFAIK it's most likely a connective tissue disorder as
             | opposed to muscular. For this there is also little help and
             | rarely diagnosed. But at least may help find answers for
             | comorbidities that are often considered unrelated.
        
             | azinman2 wrote:
             | I thought Botox helped?
        
               | PaulHoule wrote:
               | I'm sure it does but I am sure sham injections help too.
        
               | amelius wrote:
               | Yes. Found this personal blog:
               | 
               | https://www.byrdie.com/botox-for-teeth-grinding
               | 
               | and scientific review paper:
               | 
               | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5634354/
        
           | yololol wrote:
           | To me it seems a surprise that this has taken so long to be
           | discovered in general. I thought we would know all muscles by
           | now.
        
             | Retric wrote:
             | It's been known about for at least 25 years, but there was
             | some debate about the specifics. Thus they "described this
             | layer in detail for the first time."
        
               | rbanffy wrote:
               | It spent a good couple million years literally under our
               | noses.
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-27 23:00 UTC)