Do you suffer from TMJ syndrome? If so, you understand how painful it can be. Whether you’re smiling, laughing, talking, yawning, or chewing, these common daily facial movements can cause you a great deal of agony. The good news for sufferers is that there are some best practices to treat TMJ pain. I’ll discuss several of them below.
But first, what is TMJ syndrome?
TMJ stands for temporomandibular joint. While these big words can sound intimidating, some of them can be broken down so you can understand what is connecting with what. In this case, the temporal bone is at the side of the skull and the mandible is the lower jawbone.
TMJ syndrome, or temporomandibular disorder (TMD), happens when the muscles and ligaments around your jaw become inflamed and painful. I can occur because of grinding or clenching of the teeth, acute trauma, arthritis in the joint, or a misaligned bite. It often is triggered by stress. In addition to jaw pain, TMD can cause headaches, neck pain, problems opening the mouth widely, tooth pain, problems chewing, earaches, ringing in the ears, and feeling of fatigue in the face.
Years ago, I suffered with TMJ pain. It was likely brought on by stress that contributed to me clenching my teeth while sleeping (and probably during the day at times too!). It had gotten bad enough that I couldn’t yawn without pressing my finger into the jaw joint, as I was afraid my jaw might lock if I didn’t. The good news is that I don’t have TMD now! So, what did I do to get rid of it? Mostly acupuncture and massage, so I highly recommend that, but it’s also helpful to include the following.
- Don’t clench or grind your teeth
Clenching or grinding your teeth can cause irritation in the temporomandibular joint area, leading to pain and inflammation. If you’re clenching or grinding, you might want to talk to your dentist about wearing a mouth guard at night while you sleep — this will protect your jaw and your teeth from damage while allowing you to get some restful sleep. I didn’t do this, but I did discuss it with my dentist.
Whenever you catch yourself clenching, take a few deep breaths and relax your jaw again. You might let your mouth drop open and gently move it or shake it side to side. I also find that, now that my jaw no longer feels like it’s going to lock, I can relax my jaw by doing an exaggerated yawn and let go.
The masseter muscles are at the side of your face at the corner of your jawbone (mandible) and you can find them easily when you clench your jaw—they pop out more and you can feel them move. Did you know that the masseters are the strongest muscles by weight in your body? They can close the teeth with a force as high as 55 lbs at the incisors and 200 lbs on the molars, though the strongest bite recorded, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is 975 lbs of force! It makes sense, as chewing is so vitally important. Once you find these muscles, relax your jaw and gently massage them. Do this before bed to help reduce your grinding and clenching.
The muscles at the side of your head, within the hairline, called the temporalis muscles, can also become tight and contribute to headaches and jaw pain, so try this simple, stress-relieving technique. If you have hair that’s long enough at the sides, run your fingers through your hair, just above your ears, and make a fist. You’ll be pulling your hair a bit, which will, in turn, pull and stretch the muscles underneath. You can also use your fingertips to massage your whole scalp.
- Try relaxation techniques
Use relaxation techniques and stress management strategies. Stress is associated with many chronic health conditions, including TMD disorders. When you’re stressed out, it’s easier to clench or grind your teeth—which can lead to further irritation and pain in the temporomandibular joint area. To help manage stress levels, try relaxation exercises such as meditation or yoga. You may even have a hobby that helps you wind down at the end of your day.
- Practice good posture
While this may seem simple, it is a very important aspect of TMJ pain relief. Tension in your neck and shoulders can put pressure on the temporomandibular joint, leading to inflammation and pain. Our tendency is to have our head forward from our neck and torso, creating a lot of work for our neck muscles and straitening out the natural curve of our neck (cervical) spine.
Looking down at our phones, sitting at a computer, watching tv, and driving a car are common activities that cause us to have poor posture, unless we work at it. Bring your shoulders back and “open” your chest (but not too exaggerated) while you bring your head over your spine.
Check out my blog on posture for tips and exercises you can do: Preventing Pandemic Posture Problems.
- Get a good night’s sleep
Getting a good night’s sleep is important for your overall health and well-being, but it’s especially important if you have TMJ pain. Your jaw muscles need time to rest, and if you don’t get enough sleep or the quality of your sleep is poor, then the pain will only get worse. You should aim to get at least seven hours of uninterrupted sleep every night.
Before going to bed, gently massage your jaw and the muscles of your face. Create a winddown routine so that you are relaxed and not stressed when you get into bed. It’s also a good idea to avoid backlit screens like smartphones, tablets, computers, and tvs at least an hour before bedtime so that you aren’t suppressing your melatonin production. Melatonin is a hormone that your body makes that is important for sleep.
Also make sure you have a good pillow—one that supports your head and helps maintain the natural curves of the neck. You may have to do a little trial and error to find the right fit for you, but it’ll be worth it! If you’re a stomach sleeper, you may need to make some big changes, so that you find a new, better sleep position. Stomach sleeping means your head has to be rotated strongly to one side and it stresses the neck, which can cause issues for your jaw. I used to be a stomach sleeper and I chose a pillow that made it very uncomfortable for me to keep that habit.
- Practice temporomandibular joint exercises
One of the issues I had when I had jaw pain was that I couldn’t open my mouth in a straight drop-down line. When I would open my mouth, my jaw would do a little jig to the side. Whether that started my TMJ issues or was a result of my TMJ issues, I’m not sure, but either way, I knew it needed to be fixed.
Stand in front of a mirror and place your index finger in front of your mouth, like you’re “shushing” someone. With the tip of your finger touching the tip of your nose, use the rest of your finger like a plumb line. In other words, when you slowly (extra slowly if your jaw tends to wander or jig to one side) open your mouth, use your finger as a guide to keep the centre of your chin moving straight down, along the line of your finger.
Check out some other exercises and tips here:
- Use a hot or cold compress
A hot compress can help reduce inflammation and muscle tension in the jaw, which can relieve pain. A cold compress can reduce swelling in your jaw and ease soreness. You can use both methods at different times as needed, though Traditional Chinese Medicine leans toward the use of heat over cold, so I follow that as well.
- Avoid chewing gum
Chewing gum can increase pressure in the jaw, which can worsen TMJ symptoms. If you must chew gum, do so for only five minutes at a time.
- Avoid chewing hard foods
Hard foods can be difficult for people with TMJ disorders to chew because they require more muscle movement than soft foods. If you have trouble chewing hard foods, try chopping them into smaller pieces before eating them so they require less work from your jaw muscles. Marinating, soaking, and cooking also softens foods.
- Get treatment!
Acupuncture is incredibly helpful for treating TMJ pain. I’ve actually seen the shape of patients’ faces change as their masseter muscles have relaxed, and with those muscles no longer popping out, people can even appear less stressed.
Acupuncture can relax the muscles that are tense and causing jaw clenching or grinding, relieve pain in the jaw and the neck, treat headaches, increase local circulation to the tissues being worked on to improve healing, and calm the nervous system to help with stress management.
If you’ve never had acupuncture and are worried about the idea of needles in the face, fear not! The needles that I use on the face are extremely thin and not painful. In fact, patients often tell me that the face ones are their favourite. One of my favourite acupuncture points to receive (yes, I do acupuncture myself, as well as get treated by other) is at ST7 (Stomach 7, Xia Guan, “Below the Joint”), which sits, as the name states, below the joint of the jaw.
I find a combination of acupuncture and massage for TMJ pain very effective. Ask me if you would like a referral to someone who I know who does an excellent job of treating TMJ pain using massage. I won’t lie, massage for the jaw, especially when working inside the mouth, can be painful, but it does bring relief and TMD itself is painful and can be debilitating, so the reward makes it worth it.
Now that TMJ syndrome is something I no longer suffer with, I can yawn hands free, eat a gigantic burger, chew my food extra well, and shout out to the world that you can be free from TMJ pain too.
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