Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you how to relieve TMJ
pain. So let's get started.
So I like to start
off with just stretching out the neck muscles because they're all kind of
connected. So put one hand underneath you while you're sitting, and take the other
hand and just pull gently to the side, but try and keep your head in a neutral
position. This is going to stretch out your upper trap muscles, so just pulling
gently till you feel a nice stretch and hold that stretch for about 30 seconds.
After you do that, go ahead and stretch the other side, so put your hand
underneath. Gently pull over and hold that stretch
for 30 seconds as well, and do this three times on each side. If you get that
stretched a little bit, then you're just going to do some active stretching so
still keeping your head kind of in that upright neutral position, and just turn
your head all the way to one side. Hold that for about three to five seconds, and
then turn back the other way holding that for about three to five seconds, and
then just alternate back and forth about five times, just kind of stretching
everything and getting it nice and loosened up. So after you do five of
those, then you're just going to go up looking up towards the ceiling, and come
back down. Now if you have any kind of dizzy symptoms or anything like that, if
you get dizzy a lot, be very careful about when you look up towards the
ceiling, so if that makes you feel a little dizzy just look up a little bit,
and then come down. So after you get those neck muscles nice and loosened up,
same thing with these just holding three to five seconds and doing it five times
each way. Then you're going to do some massaging of the muscles up in your jaw.
So the masseter muscles here, those are the ones that help us chew and eat, so
they can get very very tight and then cause some dysfunction in that TMJ. So
what the best way to just kind of massage those is take your fingers, the
three fingers here, and just place them on your cheeks. Kind of where that, it
comes in. So find your jaw and come down just a little bit, push in,
and then push up, so almost like you're forcing yourself to make a smile. So
push in and come up. So you don't want to push so hard where it's painful,
especially if you have some TMJ dysfunction or pain, it might be a little
painful, but you want it to feel good like you're loosening everything up, and
if you've got a lot of tightness and tension in here when you start massaging
those muscles that should feel pretty good. So just pushing in and then pushing
up. So just do that for about one or two minutes to get get those masseter muscles
nice and loosened up. And then you're going to come up here to your temples
where your temporalis muscles are. And those have a lot to do with everything
here too because they do this and they help kind of pull everything right in
here. So again just pushing in with those fingers, but with these make a little bit
of a circle motion so again you want some pressure on there, you know you want
it to feel good and relieve that tension, but you don't want it to be painful. So
just do, you know, about ten one way, then reverse it and do ten the other way, just
to really kind of loosen up those muscles, and then just alternate back and
forth. So same thing, do that for about a minute and then after you do that those
muscles should feel a little bit looser. So the last thing we're going to do is
some exercises. These exercises are going to be isometric exercises which means
you're activating those muscles but you're not moving the muscles. So we're
really going to kind of work on that TMJ joint now. Sometimes when you do these
exercises, you'll feel a little pop in that joint especially if it's out of
alignment. As long as it's not painful or if it's just a little bit of pain and
then it goes away, that's okay. It's just trying to realign itself. But you, what
you want to do is make sure that your jaw is in alignment, but your teeth
aren't touching. So your mouth is going to be slightly open with a little bit of
space between your teeth, and if you're out of alignment a little bit with that
TMJ dysfunction, you want to kind of move it so it's lined up. I'm going to turn
sideways so you can see these stretches from from the side. So the first one is
you're going to put the palm of your hand underneath your jaw, and you're
going to push upwards. Not hard, maybe a 20 to 30 percent of pressure so you're
not moving the jaw, but you're keeping, you're activating
those jaw muscles to keep it in one spot. So right here
I'm going to leave a little bit, a little bit of space between my teeth, and just
pushing up. So about three to five seconds and do that five times. And just
here, and pushing up. The next one is going to now be pulling down. Make sure
that you don't bite on your fingers with this one, so you might have to open it up
just a little bit more, but make sure that jaws in as much alignment as you
can. Place your finger on the bottom set of your teeth, and now you're going to
pull downwards. So again about three to five seconds not as hard as you can but
just so you feel that those muscles are activating and working. So again about
three to five seconds, five times. And then the last two are going to be
pushing the jaw inwards. So make sure you just put that palm of your hand right on
that lower portion of the jaw, try and keep everything in alignment, and now I'm
pushing in that way three to five seconds. Go ahead and switch sides in
between, so it can take a little break and doing that five times on each side.
So those are your stretches and exercises for TMJ pain. So just remember
when you're doing those exercises at the end, those are isometric exercises. So the
jaw should stay in one spot, so you're not pushing it over, it's staying in one
spot just getting pressure on it. So if you'd like to help support our channel,
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subscribe to our channel down here. Remember be safe (keep it in alignment),
have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.