TMJ Exercises For Pain Relief

1. TMJ Exercises For Pain Relief

2. You may not think much of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), but you use it a lot. The joint connects the jawbone to the skull. Your temporomandibular joint springs into action every time you speak, chew, and swallow.

3. TMJ disorders occur when something goes wrong with the temporomandibular joint and jaw muscles. It often occurs due to a jaw injury, inflammation such as arthritis, or overuse.

4. TMJ disorders can cause mild to debilitating symptoms such as pain when chewing, pain in the ears, face, jaw, and neck, clicking, scratching, or popping sounds in the jaw when opening or closing the mouth, temporomandibular joint locking, headaches.

5. Exercise For TMJ Pain Relief Relaxed Jaw Exercise Gently place your tongue on the top of your mouth behind the upper front teeth. Let your teeth separate while relaxing your jaw muscles.

6. Goldfish exercise (partially open) Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and one finger in front of your ear where your TMJ is. Place your middle finger or pointer on your chin. Lower your lower jaw halfway, then close. There should be some resistance but no pain. A variation of this exercise is to place one finger on each TMJ as you lower the lower half of the jaw and close it. Do this exercise six times in one set. You should exercise six times a day.

7. Goldfish exercise (fully open) Keeping your tongue on the roof of your mouth, place one finger on the TMJ and the other on the chin. Lower your lower jaw completely and pull it back. For a variation of this exercise, place one finger on each TMJ as you fully lower your lower jaw and back. Do this exercise six times to complete one set. You need to do one set six times a day.

8. Chin Tucks With your shoulders back and your chest up, pull your right chin back, creating a "double chin". Hold the pose for three seconds and repeat 10 times.

9. Resistance Mouth Opener Place your thumb under your chin. Open your mouth slowly, pushing gently on your chin to counter it. Hold for three to six seconds, then slowly close your mouth.

10. Resisted Closing Of The Mouth Squeeze your chin with your index finger and thumb with one hand. Close your mouth, gently press your chin. This will help strengthen your muscles, helping you to chew.

11. Tongue Up With your tongue touching the roof of your mouth, slowly open and close your mouth.

12. Side-to-side Jaw Movement Place a ¼-inch object, such as a stacked tongue depressor, between your front teeth and slowly move your jaw from side to side. As the exercise becomes easier, increase the thickness of the foreign body between the teeth by stacking them on top of each other.

13. Forward Jaw Movement Place a ¼ inch object between your front teeth. Move the lower jaw forward so that the lower teeth are in front of the upper teeth. As the exercise gets easier, increase the thickness of the foreign body between your teeth.

14. In some cases, TMJ disorders go away on their own. If your symptoms persist, TMJ exercises can help ease the pain. TMJ exercises should not be performed when you are in severe pain. The AAFP recommends waiting until your pain improves before starting a TMJ exercise program.

15. When doing TMJ exercises, start slowly. You may feel some pain at first, but it will be tolerable and will gradually improve. If the pain is unbearable, see your doctor. You should do TMJ exercises when you are relaxing. If you do them while your muscles are tense, it may not be up to the mark.

16. If your pain gets worse after doing TMJ exercises, make an appointment with your doctor.

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