Have you ever experienced that uncomfortable pain when opening your jaw, maybe it feels like locking your jaw or clicking? If so, you may be experiencing temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJ. If you’re not sure if you’re potentially suffering from TMJ pain or don’t know what TMJ pain is, we’ve put together a helpful guide so you can understand what TMJ is.
TMJ pain can occur if the soft cartilage disk moves incorrectly in the area, if the joint sustained an impact injury or if the cartilage in the joint has eroded due to arthritis. It’s not always easy to understand where your TMJ pain is coming from, but there are a few factors that increase your chances of encountering TMJ pain such as: chronic teeth grinding, chronic teeth clenching, connective tissue disease, arthritis or jaw injury.
There are several things that you can do to prevent TMJ pain that you’re experiencing. In addition to soothing TMJ pain with a physical therapist through manual therapy, there are a few things you can do on your own to help you alleviate some of the pain you’re experiencing. Some of these things will require that you implement some behavior changes in your normal routine, while others encourage you to take a step back from your normal activities and figure out how you can destress for a bit.
We’ve identified some of the key ways that you can prevent TMJ pain below:
While these potential methods to potentially prevent TMJ pain are helpful, they are supplemental in nature to the care and treatment program you should get alongside a physical therapist or other qualified healthcare professional in the event that you begin to suffer from TMJ pain.
TMJ pain can come and go as we’ve mentioned earlier, but there are a few things you can do to potentially alleviate the discomfort in the future through some of the behavioral and pattern changes we’ve outlined above.
The TMJ joint attaches your jaw bone to your skull and the accompanying muscles are the ones that control the opening and closing of the mouth. The temporomandibular joint is a complex joint that is composed of a sliding hinge that allows your jaw to move in all different directions. There is a small piece of firm tissue, or cartilage, that protects the bones from grinding on one another by acting as a shock absorber.
The temporomandibular joint is considered to be the most active joint in the body that is responsible for chewing, speaking, and breathing. Acute TMJ pain is the most common form of TMJ disorder and can often be resolved with physical therapy, gentle exercises, and stress-relief techniques. This type of TMJ disorder will usually resolve itself within a few days to weeks. Chronic TMJ is more serious than acute due to the long-lasting effects it can have on the tendons, muscles, and cartilage that can potentially lead to nerve damage, arthritis, and dislocation.
If you’re suffering from either acute or chronic TMJ pain, you should seek out a physical therapist or other qualified healthcare professionals who can help you come up with a comprehensive treatment program. At Results PT, our focus is on helping patients get better, faster, which is why we help patients who suffer from TMJ pain through comprehensive treatment and manual therapy programs designed to target the root cause of your TMJ pain.
The Trigeminal nerve is one of the major nerves in the face that supplies the TMJ, face, and neck with nerve receptors. This means that oftentimes TMJ pain can extend from the face to the neck and back as well. We’ve highlighted some of the key symptoms that you could be experiencing which might be a result of TMJ pain. If you find that you’re feeling any or multiple of these symptoms, you should schedule an appointment with a physical therapist today to see if TMJ pain is affecting you.
Common symptoms of TMJ disorder include:
There are a multitude of different symptoms that you could be signaling that you’re suffering from TMJ or a TMJ disorder. If you noticed that you have one or more of these, then you should schedule an appointment with a physical therapist.
Nobody likes to suffer through TMJ pain, so let’s discover a few ways to help remedy this pain. Since grinding teeth and clenching the jaw are often physical signs of stress, let’s figure out ways to monitor and remedy our stress levels.
Unplug and Connect Inward
The first tip when your feeling stressed is to consider unplugging from your phone and tuning inward. It’s understandable to feel anxious when you have too many emails to respond to, your friend is calling for the fourth time today and you are receiving calendar notifications for next week. If any of those stress signals ring a bell, then you need to do all you can to try and take a step back and turn off the electronics for a while.
Even though electronics and technology have been a part of our lives for so long for the last few decades, it can be an incredible stress relief to take a step back and tune out the distractions for a bit until you can recenter yourself and alleviate those stressors that are impacting you.
Take a walk!
Try to set your intention to relax. Focus on taking slow deep breaths and get your body moving — in nature preferably. Taking a short walk will boost endorphins and reduce stress hormones. Did you know that a walk in nature can put you into a meditative state due to involuntary attention? This means our attention is held by nature and being outdoors while our brains are open for reflection at the same time. This is why it’s recommended to take walk or a few throughout the day to clear your mind.
In addition to clearing your mind, taking a stroll outside is a great way for you to spice up your normal routine and help get the blood pumping a bit so you’re not sitting at your desk all day or living a sedentary lifestyle too much. The best part about taking a walk is that it can also give you a much-needed reason to take a break, which we can all use when we’re stressed out.
There are a few gentle stretches you can do that are said to provide positive benefits to those suffering from jaw pain and to help you soothe the TMJ pain that you’re potentially experiencing. Some of the following TMJ exercises can help:
As the first line of defense when you are feeling jaw pain, you should try out these easy jaw stretches and monitor your pain before, during, and after these exercises. Along with these stretches, it’s important to give your jaw a break and rest, ice the area, and enjoy softer foods until the pain subsides.
These quick, easy, and gentle TMJ exercises are really easy to implement, and they can often come in the form of physical therapy homework that your physical therapist has assigned you to do when you’re at home to help you work on alleviating your TMJ pain.
Your physical therapist at Results can help guide you on some helpful exercises you can do in addition to a litany of other step-by-step exercises that can be found with a few simple searches. For a full list of step-by-step exercises: https://www.healthline.com/health/tmj-exercises
Our therapists at Results Physiotherapy are expertly trained to treat patients with TMJ pain. We have a variety of pain management, rehabilitation and prevention techniques such as:
If you’ve experienced TMJ pain before, you understand how uncomfortable the pain might get and the importance of finding a pain-reducing method that works for you. At Results, not only are we able to treat your current TMJ pain, but we can equip you with the toolset of education to understand how to prevent this pain in the future. We also teach you how to stop TMJ pain before it gets worse and affects other areas of the body.
Why wait to visit a physical therapist for your TMJ pain? With Results Physiotherapy, you will receive expert one-on-one care that will help you recover and become educated on future prevention methods. Our physical therapists can assess your pain and educate you on which habits you’ve adopted that may make you more susceptible to experiencing TMJ pain.
Schedule an Appointment Today to connect with a physical therapist in-person or virtually so you can get on the pathway to recovery.
