What is TMJ?
TMJ (short for temporomandibular joint). Jaw pain is a common affliction amongst the general population, but it happens to be a very debilitating condition to have. Jaw pain can be as simple as a clicking or teeth grinding to a full on broken jaw!
What are the symptoms of TMJ?
The biggest factors in relation to jaw pain aside from physical trauma is psychological stress, as well as poor sleep. These are hard things to control, leading to jaw pain quite often being very painful going for a long time. The official name for the jaw is the temporomandibular joint, or TMJ for short (which is what you’ll probably hear us call it). The joint is a bit complicated but what you generally need to know is that it opens and closes and five muscles are responsible for that. Four of these muscles close the jaw and often are the problem that you will be coming to see us for because they get very tight very easily, you use your jaw a lot! (About 20,000 times a day).
How to treat jaw pain?
If you come to see us for your jaw pain you can expect these muscles to be addressed, one in the temple, one in your cheek and perhaps even the two that can be found inside the mouth. They are usually a common source of tension and make up a significant amount of jaw problems. One side is usually worse than the other and I usually find that it’s related to some other neck/shoulder/upper back problems, so we will usually look around those regions as well. The fifth muscle I referred to at the start is actually the tongue, a very important aspect of jaw problems. See, the muscles of the jaw all act to close the jaw, hence why they all get so tight. But when we’re assessing a joint we always have to consider the opposite muscle (lower back and the core for example). In this instance the tongue is actually the strongest muscle that closes the jaw. Now, we’re not going to be actually treating the tongue but strengthening it is a great way to protect the jaw and stop all the other muscles from overworking We have basically been talking about muscle jaw pain up until this point but it is important to realise there are also disc and joint disorders as well we can help with. They are a little more complex, so a proper discussion is warranted but there is generally something we can do to help with these.
Author: Dr Kieran Benton