Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD)
Do you have jaw pain?
Do you notice yourself clenching your teeth frequently? Or have you been told that you grind your teeth?
If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you may have TMD — Temporomandibular Disorder. The name is long, but all it means is that your jaw joint isn’t behaving the way it’s supposed to. If you have TMD, you may notice jaw pain, jaw clicking, jaw popping, headaches, grinding, clenching, or a combination of those things.
In this blog, we’re going to cover:
What TMD is
How we assess the temporomandibular joint (TMJ)
and the fun part: How we treat it!
If you’d rather hear and watch us go over TMD and our assessment and treatment of it, check out our video.
Otherwise, keep reading!
First, we’ll get into a little anatomy.
The TMJ is the jaw joint, and it’s where your lower jaw bone (mandible) meets up with your temporal bone (part of your skull). This joint is very unique because it is the most mobile joint in your body! When you open your mouth, your jaw will initially “hinge” open, and then it will slide forward. Every time you fully open your mouth, your jaw actually partially dislocates!
We also have some important muscles that attach to our jaw: the masseter (on the side of your cheek), the temporalis (which is shaped like a fan on the side of your head), and the pterygoids (inside your mouth). These muscles work together to help you open and close your mouth, and they also control how your jaw moves from side to side.
Great, got that part out of the way!
So what goes wrong, and why does your jaw hurt?
It could be a combination of:
An imbalance in the muscles
Stress — especially if you notice lots of clenching
Habits — like gum chewing
A mobility issue in the actual temporomandibular joint
Grinding your teeth
How you breath (nasal vs. mouth breathing)
The Assessment
In our office, we’ll assess your TMJ by watching you open your mouth and looking for deviation of your jaw to one side or the other. We’ll also feel the TMJ as you open and close your mouth, check the surrounding muscles for trigger points, and check out the joints in your upper neck area to get a better idea of what’s causing your symptoms.
Once we’ve determined what might be driving your TMD, we’ll get to work on treatment!
Treatment
Treatment will usually start by focusing on pain relief and releasing trigger points in the surrounding muscles. We do this with dry needling or muscle release, or a combination of the two. Because the TMJ is so unstable (remember — it partially dislocates when you open your mouth all the way!), chiropractic adjusting of the jaw is usually not indicated. We will often see restricted joints and tight muscles in the upper neck area in people with TMD, so we will use chiropractic adjusting to help regain upper neck mobility.
After releasing tight muscles and getting your pain under control, we will then start on retraining your TMJ movement. This is probably the most important part of treatment, because when we get your muscles to activate the right way, then it can keep your pain away long term. And who wants their pain to come back?
If grinding is the main culprit, we may need to work together with your dentist to find the best solution for you.
If you have questions, give us a call at (402) 256 6683, shoot a message to Clinic@MidwestMovementElkhorn.com, or click the link below to schedule.