Hi Everyone! I’m Priya Mistry the TMJ doc and today I’m going to talk to you about how
I unlock the locked jaw - specifically the jaw locking open - not closed! These are two VERY
different conditions, not to be confused with one another! If you've ever had your jaw lock open,
you know how uncomfortable and how awkward this can be. Some of you have been able to maneuver
it shut yourselves. Others of you have gone to the ER with doctors trying to maneuver the jaw shut.
Either which way, it's not a fun thing to go through. If you watch this video until the end,
you're going to see how I treat this condition in my office
and what you can do to prevent it from EVER happening again.
That being said, if you’re looking for more information on TMJ Disorders in general or
if you're looking for yourself or for a loved one, then this is the YouTube channel for you.
I post a new informational video every Friday for people who are suffering from
TMJ Disorders or for people who are just looking for more information!
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a general dentist with a practice in Vancouver,
Washington which is 10 miles north of Portland, Oregon.
Here at my practice, we are dedicated to taking care of patients with TMJ disorders. Please check
out my other social media accounts if you want to hang out with me on social media in general.
I like to post tips, tidbits, trivia, just general information - particularly on Instagram. So please
be sure to check everything out there. [Links to social media are in the description box below].
So let’s get right into it! What exactly happens when the jaw is locked open? Well, my friends,
to fully understand it, you must have at least a basic understanding of the anatomy of the
jaw joint. So the jaw joint is made up of two bony components. The condyle, which is the bony
knob the jaw bone ends on in the joint. And the temporal bone, which is a skull bone. The temporal
bone two parts to it that are important for the jaw locking open. One part is a little indentation
called the fossa and the other is a little bony bump or protuberance called the articular
eminence. When the mouth is closed, the condyle actually sits in the fossa. When we go to open,
the condyle slides down the articular eminence and on full opening, it should stop
just at the end of the articular eminence. This is where things get interesting, my friends.
For people whose jaws lock open, when they open fully they are actually able to get beyond the
articular eminence and the condyle gets stuck in the little notch beyond the articular eminence.
When the condyle gets stuck in that little notch, that's when the jaw locks open.
So these people that can get the condyle past the articular eminence and stuck in that little notch
are actually going beyond the normal boundaries of the joint. These people
are usually hyper-mobile or loose ligamented and that's just the way that they're built.
To “fix” this - to get the jaw to close again - the condyle has to be manipulated
back past the articular eminence and into the fossa. This has to be done
carefully, slowly, and manually by somebody who knows what they're doing. Some people
can just sort of finagle it and do it on themselves, while others need professional help.
I’ve only actually seen the jaw locking open ONCE in my three years treating TMJ Disorders.
My mentor, who treated TMJD for over 40 years, has only seen this situation twice. And we
believe the reason for this is that most people go straight to the ER when their jaw is locked open.
It is not a good look, first off and it is very, very uncomfortable. And most people are drooling
the whole time because they literally can't close to swallow. this happens and get the situation
resolved there. Sometimes the doctors in the ER are not successful in maneuvering the jaw back
closed, so that resulted in the one case I ended up seeing in my office. All other locked jaws that
I’ve seen are actually the jaw locking closed. For more information on this condition, please
watch my videos “Jaw Locked Open” and "Jaw Locked Closed" Parts 1 and 2, all of which I’ve
linked above. It's actually very different in terms of what's happening anatomically
inside the joints when the jaw locks open versus when the jaw locks closed.
So what can you do if your jaw is currently locked open? Well, I'd recommend seeing a healthcare
professional to help you get it closed again. It can be painful and I wouldn’t recommend trying to
do it yourself because you actually need a good firm grip on the jaw bone as well as careful,
controlled movements to maneuver it back into place without damaging the muscles,
the joints, or the ligaments. At my office, with the one case that I’ve treated,
I actually grasped the jaw bone and gently maneuvered it back into place
which was easy to do for me to do because I am so familiar with the anatomy of the jaw joint.
If this is something that happens to you frequently, this likely means you’re loose
ligamented or that you're hypermobile. The good news is that there is an easy fix to prevent this
from happening again and that is simply not to open to 100% of your ability. So when you
go to bite into a big sandwich, when you go to yawn, when you go to scream on a roller coaster,
just don't open to 100%. Always be mindful to keep it at about 90%. This will prevent the
condyle from going past the articular eminence and it will prevent it from going beyond the
boundaries of the jaw joint and that should keep you from having your jaw locking open.
So that’s really it my friends. If you like what you heard or learned something new, click
“Like” below, Subscribe to my channel, do all the things! If you have any questions or comments,
feel free to put them in the Comment Box below. I try my best to respond to everybody in a somewhat
timely manner. And remember, my friends, you can never have TMI about TMJ! Thank you!