Have you been experiencing jaw pains or difficulty whenever you speak or chew? There might be something wrong with your TMJ or Temporomandibular joint. What is it? What are the common symptoms? How could I recover from it? Is rehab available to make recovery? Let’s start digging up to learn more.

What is TMJ?

TMJ or Temporomandibular Joint which connects our jawbone to our skull. It performs like a sliding hinge that helps in every movement – opening, closing and side to side movements of the mouth. Difficulty and problems in the part of this joint can be the main cause of facial, neck and headache pains. Pains that are severely experienced could make a negative impact on someone’s quality of life.

What are the symptoms of TMJ disorder?

If you have dysfunctional TMJ, you may experience:

• Aches in and around your ear
• Neck or Shoulder Pains
• Headache (mostly felt in the temples, under the eyes and at the side of the lower jaw)
• Clicking or grating noise when you open your mouth or chew
• Uncomfortable chew or uneven bite
• Tenderness of the jaw
• Joint locking (that makes it impossible to close your mouth)
• Aching facial pain

Jaw clicking associated with pain or limitation in movement could be a main sign or indication that you need to go to a professional for proper consultation. TMJ Physiotherapy can help in the improvement and recovery of TMJ dysfunctions.

What are the causes of TMJ dysfunction?

There are a lot of possible factors that lead to TMJ problems. The movement of the joint is usually smooth and no pain is felt. When pain is experienced and the movements are becoming limited, the problem begins.

Some factors that cause TMJ are:

• Prolonged mouth opening
• Jaw Injury
• Poor Cervical Posture
• Stress and Whiplash
• Trauma (huge impact on face, skull, chin etc)
• Infection
• Anatomical Abnormalities
• Arthritis that damaged the joint’s cartilage
• Chronic grinding and clenching of teeth
• Neuropsychological Factors
• Myofascial pain
• Tumor

How Physiotherapy Can Help TMJ Dysfunction and Eliminate Pain?

Physiotherapy involves various treatment plans that will be tailored-fit for your recovery based on your professional’s assessment. Your physiotherapist will examine your medical history, dental visits, your lifestyle habits that may have caused TMJ dysfunction to address how it could be recovered.

Through physiotherapy, we can restore the natural movement of your jaw and aim to relieve the pain through different treatments such as:

• Posture Education: It could lessen the stress on your TMJ and the muscles that are strained beneath your chin. It will help improve your resting position to relieve your jaw, neck, breastbone and shoulder blades from stress when doing movements such as sitting and walking.
• Reduction of Muscle Spasm: As physiotherapists, they assess the muscles of your TMJ. Manual therapy techniques can reduce the muscle spasms that will eventually result into less pain and improving joint alignment and movement of TMJ
• Improving Mobility: Physiotherapists usually assess that you have a stiff joint around your TMJ, through manual therapy they get the joints moving again freely. They will do specific stretches that could help and improve the range of motion and eventually pain free.
• Strengthening Joints: They will strengthen weak muscles around your jaw area and improve your natural movement pattern from poor patterns of movement that caused TMJ dysfunction
• Referral to Dentist: Dysfunction of TMJ is sometimes caused with your teeth misalignment which could be referred by a dentist with specialty in TMD. They may correct the alignment with special equipment such as bite guards, that provides a normal resting place for the TMJ

At Evergreen, we have professionals who are well trained and fully knowledgeable of how these TMJ dysfunctions could be addressed. Various techniques and treatment plans will be prescribed to be done depends on the need and assessment of your professional physiotherapist such as:

• Manual Therapy
• IMS (Intramuscular Stimulation)
• Acupuncture 
• Stretching Exercises

Dentist Visit could also be suggested by your physiotherapist to confirm if the use of mouth guards are necessary or not.

At Evergreen, we can fully help you address your TMJ disorders as we have top tier skilled professional physiotherapists who can handle your condition.

Book your physiotherapy session at Evergreen as we together aim to improve the quality of your daily life pain free!

Book for TMJ Physiotherapy at Evergreen