♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks. I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Yeah, we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- We've got some simple TMJ treatment exercises
you can do yourself to stop pain in the jaw
and also that clicking.
Hopefully, we can help you stop. 'em both.
- Right.
- So, and what we're talking about here is
the temporomandibular joint and it's also called,
the problem is also called temporomandibular disorder,
- Sure. - TMD.
So if you have any one of these
you may want to give these a try.
They're simple treatments you can do
and they're not very, they're not invasive.
And you know, there there's, if you do 'em gently
there should be no harm done to the jaw.
- Right. These should feel good.
And if they don't, if they create pain
then it's not the thing to do. Just, just go on.
- And that's pretty much always the case with Bob and Brad.
You know, if it hurts, don't do it. I mean,
we're not, we're not "no pain, no gain" kind of guys.
So by the way, if you are new to our channel
like these two heads are, please take a second
take your arms and subscribe to us.
- [Brad] (laughing)
- We provide videos, how stay healthy, fit, pain free.
And we upload every day.
Also, if you get a chance, go over to Facebook and like us
cuz Brad and I as children, were not liked.
It's a sad story, but we're trying to turn things around so.
- We're getting a few likes aren't we, Brad?
- [Brad] Oh yeah.
- Here and there.
- [Brad] These guys like us.
- So, okay. What we're talking about here, the
the temporomandibular joint is actually,
I dunno if you've got this Lonnie.
Can you get fairly close on this?
So that's the joint right here.
You don't have your pen, Brad.
- [Brad] I know. I was just thinking about that.
- And there's actually a little disc in there.
A little cartilage in there.
- [Brad] Yeah. Yes there is. And that's, you know,
it kind of helps the smooth action of the joint.
- By the way, this is Napoleon our old skeleton
and this is Sam, our new one.
Now Sam is a little bit improved because now you can see
two of the main muscles that help affect the jaw.
- [Brad] Right.
- So we have the masseter
which is a powerful closing muscle.
And this one actually also helps close it
and also retracts it a little bit.
- [Brad] It's called the temporalis.
- Temporalis yep. So you can see that's a big muscle here.
These are really great visuals cuz it's gonna help you
with doing the first step here.
Of trying to treat this. - [Brad] That self-massage?
- Yeah. The self-massage.
So if you put your hands up here and you open your jaw,
you'll feel this muscle working.
You feel it, Brad.
- Yeah. And when you bite down, it's sort of, you can see,
especially people that have thin faces and, you know,
if they're chewing their food
and you're watching 'em across the,
you can see those muscles work quite well.
- I don't know why you'd be watching them, but you know.
- Well you're a therapist, Bob, you know.
- Oh, that's right, we are observing all the time.
Okay. So what you're gonna do is
you're gonna just take your palms. Very simple.
Lot of TMJ pain can be just cuz
the muscles are being overused.
- Right.
- And, and so you can go ahead
and you're just gonna with the
I always like the closed position
for the jaw where you take your tongue
and put it on the roof of the mouth
right between, behind the front teeth. Right, Brad?
- Yeah. Right there.
- That that's just a good comfortable position
for the, the jaw.
So you're gonna take your palms
and you're gonna work your way up on that masseter muscle.
So I'm working my way up on the blue muscle here.
- Yep. Right there from the side up.
- And it actually feels good. Doesn't it, Brad?
- Yeah. And we're using that, that pad
where you have right below your thumb,
there's that there's a hypothenar eminence
is a technical term for it, but that,
that little pad and it's nice and soft.
- I think that's a thenar. The hypo, hypo's on this side.
- Yeah. I'm sorry yeah. The hypo's there. Sorry about that.
- So good posture while you're doing it.
Try to have good posture and now we're gonna go ahead,
and, and my glasses is getting a little bit
in the way here, Brad. You can actually work up into
that larger temporalis muscle.
Again just as a reminder, what it looks like.
It's this red one right here.
- And it's a broad muscle and I know on mine
up over the temple it doesn't feel so good.
When I get back by the ear, boy, all of a sudden
everything relaxes and it feels good.
- All right. So after you've tried that and it felt fine.
Then you might try it with a combination here.
So now you're gonna go ahead and do the massage
while you're gently opening the mouth so.
And again, you can keep the tongue on the top of the roof,
if you, if you're able to do so.
- Bob, did we talk about emphasizing good, seated posture
while you're doing this? I don't remember if we did.
- We did not. I, I mentioned it once
but I was gonna mention at the end again, but yeah.
We're gonna show you some reasons why
posture's so important.
- Okay.
- When, when, when, when you're doing these.
Cuz it really affects the jaw and swallowing so.
So as you see now, the only difference now
this time we're actually opening the jaw slightly
while we're doing this and now we're gonna go ahead
and work up into the temporalis
and the same thing tongue on the roof of the mouth.
I can't talk that way so that's why I'm not doing it.
And opening the jaw.
- So we're actually stretching the muscle
and massaging at the same time.
There's nothing new about that.
It's just the way you do it with the jaw muscles.
- Right. All right. Next thing.
If you're actually getting some clicking in your jaw
or one-sided jaw pain, this is something you might try.
I put some tape on Napoleon here
and you can see there's a piece of tape
on the top upper jaw and the lower jaw,
maxilla and mandible right.
- There you go - I think I remember right.
And when you open up, these should still stay lined up.
Okay. If yours deviates one way like that
or maybe deviates. Oh my, he lost his head!
- [Brad] He's embarrassed now. That poor guy.
- I'm sorry about that.
- [Brad] Yeah. Well that'll happen. That will happen
from time to time. - Oh, let's just take it off.
- [Brad] Yeah. Well don't worry about it.
Get your hand in it for a grip.
- Yeah, there we go.
- [Brad] There you go.
- So it can also deviate that way.
Now generally what that means.
It could be a little bit of muscle imbalance
but it could also mean that you're maybe a little bit tight
on the jaw on that side.
So let's see if I deviate this way,
you might have be a little bit tight
on the temporal mandibular jaw on this side.
- So if you, if your chin goes to the left, as you open up
that would be the side that's likely tight.
- So what you're gonna do is
you're actually gonna take again that palm
and I'm gonna push against the jaw gently
while I'm opening the jaw.
And I've actually done this one before.
I, I, I was chewing some gum and I
it must have threw me off a little bit.
And I actually just did this when I pushed against the jaw.
Did some gentle ones and it took the pain away so.
- Right. So if you do this and it doesn't take the pain away
if by chance - It hurts worse,
- then you stop. It's not the, it should be very clear
that it makes it feel better.
- So I'm deviating this way, so I'm gonna go ahead and,
and use my again thenar eminence
and push right there and gently open the mouth again,
tongue on the roof.
- Aah.
- Tongue on the roof.
- Yep.
- If you deviate this way you're gonna go the opposite way.
You're gonna push and you know
you gotta find the right spot here.
You can find the spot.
When you go open the jaw you should feel kind of
poking in and poking out the jaw.
- Yep.
- That's the spot you want to be on.
- Yeah. It's really helpful to have a,
a skeleton to really get a feel for it there.
And here that, that's why we're therapists, I guess, Bob
cuz we know that.
- So yeah, exactly. We know exactly where to push.
Now, if, if you are having more maybe a muscle imbalance
and you wanna work on strengthening the muscle
so that you are lined up.
You can actually just simply use your hands to and
and do this in a mirror. And you're gonna watch again.
You're gonna wanna line up.
Sometimes they put the finger for here and here, Brad,
just so that they line up, you know.
- And use your fingers for a visual.
- And this one's giving resistance as I close.
- So we're closing and this finger is actually
kind of gripping into the, that bone,
- The chin
- The chin and off- offering resistance.
Hard to talk when you're doing this.
- Yeah. So what we're trying to do here
we're trying to strengthen
while you have it lined up correctly.
So the fingers are gonna tell you
are they lined up correctly or are they off like,
you know one side and the other.
- Right.
- If they're lined up correctly, then go ahead
and give a little resistance while you're closing.
You can also go the other way.
You can give a little resistance while you're opening.
So you're gonna have em, lined up,
open up like that.
I'm giving a little resistance as I'm opening.
- You could do what we did here with ah-
- Leopold.
- Put a little blue tape on your upper lip
and lower lip and, and see.
- Well you could have one of those,
you could shave that way.
Leave that there.
- Oh yeah. What is that called?
The goatee or the, the, we don't have one
so we don't know what's right.
- That's right. I don't ever do that so. All right.
So that's the, that's the strengthening ones you can do.
And you can do, I'd just say like two or three sets of 10.
- Sure.
And, and eventually, hopefully it's just gonna go lined up
and stay lined up without you having to do anything.
- Right, right.
- So, alright that this is where we're get
to the part where we're talking about posture.
It's really important that you have good posture.
It's amazing how posture affects your swallowing in the jaw.
I mean, just try this once.
Try to take a, you know, have really good posture
take a sip of water and then lean forward like this
and then take a sip of water.
And you're gonna find out it's very difficult to do.
The, the throat is closing off.
- Not so much sipping it
but the swallow action is what we're talking about.
- Right. The swallow action.
- Swallow here, and then swallow there.
And you'll notice the change.
- Yeah. You really wanna make sure you have good posture
if you're having a jaw problem because it can help.
So one you're gonna do is chin tucks.
So Brad's demonstrating those right now.
You're taking the chin and you're
you're retracting your head.
You're not going down like this and you're not going up.
You're just backing the head up
and it's putting the head right over the shoulders.
It's putting it in a good position.
The next one is because your shoulders often tend
to round out with bad posture.
You can do some shoulder squeezes.
Can you show, turn Brad?
So he's squeezing his shoulder blades together here
and that's gonna help line things up.
And those are the ones you can do throughout the day.
Every hour if you like do a couple chin tucks
and a couple shoulder squeezes
and it's gonna make a big difference.
- And I just wanted to add along with the swallowing
the mechanics of the TMJ joint are also affected by that-
- By bad posture - by that posture
I'm trying to emphasize that as well.
- Thank you, Brad.
If none of this helps, by the way we recommend
you may wanna see an orthodontist
that specializes in the TMJ.
- Sure.
- My daughter had some difficulties
with grinding her teeth at night. Bruxism.
And she had a, a mouth guard made and it did wonders.
I mean, cuz she was getting headaches from her jaw.
- Right.
- Which, which is not that uncommon.
And she had that made it just like a miracle
to be honest with you. It really worked well.
- Yep, so that's yeah.
You try these things if they don't feel good
and are clear because we've had a number of
of people where it's clear this works well
there there's no doubt about it.
You don't have to work at it for a week.
You know, the first time you try
you are gonna notice some positive results.
- And remember just because you having pain
it's nothing to lose your head over.
- Oh Bob you're killing me.
- All right. Thanks for watching.
- (chuckling)