How to Troubleshoot Your Jaw Pain
Do you feel pain on your jaw joint? Do you have difficulty opening or closing your mouth? Do you feel annoying popping sounds/clicks when you try to open and close your mouth? Are you experiencing excruciating tension headaches along with your jaw pain? Do you hear grating sounds on your jaw joint while trying to chew?
If you’ve said yes to one of these questions, chances are you might be having some issues on your temporomandibular joint (TMJ).
Experiencing this annoying sensation for many weeks or months now, you are probably still out there asking people (whether its your physician, dentists, friends & support groups) and looking for what could be the solution to this unrelenting jaw pain.
It is unknown to many that physiotherapists provides great help with these kinds of problem. My mission today is to give you some tips and solutions to solve this problem and live a life that is pain-free.
The first step in fixing any type of problem in your body is to understand how the human body works. In this particular case, how your jaw joint works. Much like when you’re trying to fix a certain problem in your car, you have to understand the parts and how it works for you to be able to troubleshoot it on your own. It is the same with our body.
PART I: UNDERSTANDING HOW YOUR JAW WORKS
Your jaw works almost every time. You use it whenever you speak and open your mouth. You use it when you eat as you bite and chew food. In some cases — others even unconsciously use their jaw joint when they sleep (jaw clenching, teeth grinding for some). It works even more when you try to bite and chew hard foods, eat on one side, bite your nails and clench your jaw when you’re under stress/angry/lifting heavy weights.
Even though this joint is working too hard on a daily basis, not enough attention and care is given to this joint compared to other parts of our body. And just like other joints in the body, it is important to take care of our jaw joint as it can be overused and might have adapted to some bad habits over the years.
HOW IT MOVES:
On a day to day basis, our jaw joint predominantly moves in one direction. It’s either going up and down (mouth opening/ closing). It happens a lot when we communicate, yawn, put food in our mouth, etc.
It also has the ability to shift side to side, forward and back (although of limited range).
With patients who are suffering from TMJ dysfunction, it is not uncommon to see that the jaw tends to shift on one side as he/she tries opens the mouth.
THE MUSCLES:
TEMPORALIS AND MASSETER
The temporalis and mandible are the two main muscles we use for closing/elevating our mouth and chewing food. These muscles are located on the side of our jaw and temple and are often the ones that tensed up with patients who are experiencing jaw joint issues.
PTERYGOIDS
As described earlier, our jaw joint is capable of slightly shifting from side to side. The pterygoid muscles are the ones that are mainly turned on for that specific movement. They are specifically located from the inside the mouth and directly attaches to our jaw joint. When working on these areas, utmost care must be observed as these are very sensitive areas.
(PS: don’t try to work on these areas at home. Working on these areas inappropriately may cause more harm than good. It would be best to seek out professional help if you think these muscles are the ones causing your jaw pain)
DIGASTRICS & OTHER HYOID MUSCLES
These muscles along with a few pterygoid muscles are the ones primarily responsible for jaw depression or mouth opening. They run along the lower part of our chin towards the back of our ears.
Getting to know how each part works and what their main function is — is essential for us to know what parts of the jaw we need to be working on. But before we can get into troubleshooting jaw pain, we need to understand first how to perform basic diagnostics for our jaw.
PART II: JAW DIAGNOSTICS (aka. assessment)
There are a lot of factors which can cause pain on your jaw. It is important to seek medical help to find out what the root of the problem is.
As soon as our jaw joint starts being subjected to forces it cannot withstand, problems start to arise. It can be from excessive mouth opening which then cause joint subluxation and/or ligament sprains. It could be from joint arthritis or disc displacement issues that causes one’s jaw to lock upon mouth opening and closing. It could also be a muscular imbalance issue due to muscular tension when one frequently clench their jaw and overuse jaw joint.
ASSESSMENT:
3 Finger Test — to check range of motion (how far it can open) of your jaw.
Facial/Jaw Symmetry — to check alignment of your jaw joint. This is usually done by taking a photo of your face from different angles and observing the alignment of the jaw on the face.
Movement — to check how jaw joint moves (does it deviate from on one side when you try to open your mouth?). Usually done in front of a mirror or camera while observing if the jaw is moving on a straight path or does it go on one side.
Once we get to understand these basic diagnostics, its time to troubleshoot your jaw pain.
PART III: TROUBLESHOOTING JAW JOINT
Troubleshooting the jaw joint is the easiest part once we get to understand how jaw joint works and how to assess it. What I’m about to show in these videos are exercises that you can safely do at home.
DISCLAIMER: My advise is for you to consult and still seek out help from a medical professional for you to get the best and the right treatment. Our jaw configuration are unique and its going to be different for everyone. It still would be best for you to seek out a medical professional who can give you a personalized treatment according to your jaw configuration.
TROUBLESHOOTING THE JAW:
And that’s how you troubleshoot jaw pain ! ✌️
If you have questions, feel free to shoot down your comments below.
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