When you’re eating or chewing and feel a spike of pain course through your jaw, you might not think it’s anything serious, but you could be one of the millions of Americans who suffer from annoying pain while chewing or yawning. Millions of individuals experience acute or chronic jaw pain, and what you think might be a simple ache or pain here and there while eating certain foods could be something more serious. Jaw pain is one of the most common afflictions across the United States, as the number of TMJ-related causes varies between roughly 10 million Americans and 35 million Americans who suffer from TMJ pain and disorders. Interestingly enough, only about 3 to 7% of individuals who suffer from TMJ pain even seek treatment.
Many individuals suffer from TMJ-related pain (or Temporomandibular Disorders / TMD) and don’t realize that there are potential things that contribute to the pain that they’re experiencing. We’ve created a helpful guide to inform you about TMJ pain, some of the most common symptoms, how your routine could be contributing to the level of TMJ pain you experience and ways Physical Therapy can help you overcome and alleviate your TMJ pain.
If you’ve never been diagnosed with a TMJ disorder, then chances are that you haven’t heard of TMJ or TMJ-related jaw pain. Essentially, a TMJ disorder is when you suffer from pain in the temporomandibular joint in addition to the associated muscles, ligaments, and nerves around the joint. TMJ pain can also relate to referred pain from the neck to the upper jaw area where your jaw bone (mandible) meets the skull in front of your ear (temporal bone).
This joint disorder can cause you significant pain whenever you try to perform certain jaw movements or functions like chewing on a piece of food or speaking. Oftentimes a TMJ disorder can cause you to feel pain in your jaw joint or the muscles that help to support and manipulate your jaw. Over time, this pain can often worse when eating certain foods, stress, posture, and a variety of other factors. Individuals who suffer from TMJ-related pain can either experience it acutely, or over longer, extended periods of time.
If you’ve ever felt pain in your jaw before, it doesn’t automatically mean that you’re suffering from a TMJ-related disorder. A qualified healthcare professional or Physical Therapist can work with you to determine whether or not you might have a TMJ-related disorder and outline potential treatment programs that can help you get on the pathway to a successful recovery.
A physical therapist and qualified healthcare professional will work with you to identify and evaluate some of your symptoms. A clinical assessment from a Physical Therapist involves assessing jaw motion, bite, identifying deviations and abnormalities, identifying painful structures, and developing an individualized treatment plan based on your presentation. Depending on the severity of the TMJ pain you’re experiencing, you could have one or multiple symptoms. If you’re trying to determine whether or not you might have TMJ, a few of the most prevalent symptoms include: pain, clicking sounds, and restricted movement.
In some cases, TMJ patients have experienced one symptom one day and then a totally different symptom a few days later. Oftentimes, this can create the illusion that each symptom is something else entirely and not an underlying issue of TMJ pain. This confusing sensation is why it’s so important to work with a physical therapist or healthcare professional to help you identify the true source of your symptoms so you can effectively work towards alleviating the pain you’re experiencing with an individualized treatment plan.
Now that you understand what some of the symptoms of TMJ pain are, you might be asking yourself how you can go about preventing TMJ pain, potential methods to soothe TMJ pain, and what kind of actions you’re doing in your normal routine which could contribute to your TMJ pain.
It can be challenging to determine what could be potentially causing your TMJ pain, as it’s often a number of factors instead of just one. Individuals who suffer from TMJ-related pain or TMD can often have acute flare-ups that occur when certain actions are performed like chewing on certain foods, or they can suffer for extended periods of time until the TMJ pain is resolved. Each case of TMJ is different for each patient.
There are often things in our personal life which can make our TMD symptoms worse.
Some potential actions that could influence your TMJ pain and TMJ symptoms include chronic stress, arthritis, trauma, oral habits, nutrition, and more. In the following section, we’ll break down each one of the actions that could contribute to your TMJ pain, and how you could potentially reduce the impact they have.
One big contributor to TMJ pain that patients often experience comes in the form of chronic stress, anxiety, and depression. As we go through different bouts of anxiety and stress, we subconsciously tense up the muscles in our body, including the muscles in our jaw and neck. Over time, this tension can increase the sensitivity in your jaw region and increase your TMJ pain.
One way in which you can reduce your stress that could be contributing to your TMJ pain is to take multiple breaks throughout the day and try to perform other tasks. It’s a good idea to take your mind off of something that’s been stressing you out so you can settle down, calm your nerves, and alleviate some of that tension that could be building up. Don’t let stress and built-up tension cause your TMJ pain to get worse.
Whether you slip and fall or feel like a clutz sometimes, micro and macro trauma can have a significant impact on developing and dealing with TMJ pain. Macro trauma can involve direct blows to your jaw from a car crash, sports injury, dental/oral procedures, or violence. Micro trauma can occur due to repetitive grinding, chewing, or sleeping on the painful side of your jaw. If you’ve ever had trauma to the jaw or neck area, you could have made underlying jaw issues worse. There are plenty of events that could be considered as trauma including car crashes, sports injuries, violence, dental treatment, or any other scenario where there might have been physical damage.
If you’re currently suffering from TMJ pain, try your best to take care of your face and jaw. Though most macro-trauma is unavoidable, micro-trauma can be avoided with changing habits. Little things can add up over time and you need to give those muscles and joints enough time to rest and recover. Physical trauma to your jaw or neck area will not only make your TMJ pain symptoms worse but also lengthen the time it takes to recover properly.
Oral habits can play a hidden role when it comes to your TMJ pain. For instance, a dentist might have told you in the past that you grind your teeth at night, or you clench your jaw throughout the day. Things as simple as how you brush your teeth at night, floss, and rinse your mouth out each night could have an impact on the severity of TMJ pain you feel.
Try to reduce the tension and strain you put on your jaw when you’re brushing your teeth at night, sleeping, or working throughout the day. If you find that you clench your teeth throughout the day or grind your teeth at night, a healthcare professional might recommend that you get a mouth guard or brace to reduce some of that subconscious tension overnight.
Certain foods can contribute to your TMJ pain. The kind of candy you snack on and food you consume could impact and worsen your TMJ pain without you realizing it. If you feel sore after eating certain types of foods, try to wean those foods and items out of your diet. Try to avoid chewy or hard foods and switch to a softer diet. If you feel sore during the day, try to avoid eating things that would cause strain and tension on those muscles and joints. A good example is swapping out some of those foods that require lots of chewing or are difficult to bite into like bread.
Overuse can be a big factor when dealing with TMJ pain, as we use our jaws hundreds of times throughout the day without even thinking about it. The moment you start to deal with some jaw pain, that’s when it hits you that you use your jaw all of the time. An important aspect of treating and recovering from TMJ pain is to give your jaw and the respective joints enough time to rest and recover. Even though it can be difficult, you need to avoid any activity that would cause you to overuse your jaw and those essential muscles/joints. Try to consume less difficult-to-eat foods or gum, talk less, and reduce the amount of movement in your jaw.
While each person has a different perfect posture, certain positions may aggravate or worsen your TMJ-related pain. Changing your head and neck posture could change the amount of tension around the jaw. Try to take frequent breaks throughout the day so you don’t have an uncomfortable posture which could worsen your symptoms.
You don’t have to live with TMJ pain. At Results Physiotherapy, we’re passionate about working with individuals who suffer from TMJ pain or TMJ disorders. Physical therapy treatment typically involves addressing the contributing factors to your pain which include soft tissue work to symptomatic muscles, cervical mobilizations, and exercises for the jaw, neck, and overall posture.
Physical therapy has a number of treatment methods and programs that could help you alleviate some of the TMJ pain you’re experiencing including manual therapy, massage therapy, dry needling therapy, and more. Schedule an appointment to work with a physical therapist at one of the hundreds of locations across the country to alleviate your TMJ pain.
