In this video we're going to look at
some exercises to help with jaw or TMJ
Pain. TMJ stands for the
temporomandibular joint which is your
jaw joint and you have two of these, one on
either side of your jaw.
The phrase TMJ is sometimes used just to
describe the problem, so you may be
diagnosed with TMJ syndrome, but people
just talk about TMJ pain. Pain is one of
the symptoms that people suffer from but
they also can have problems with opening
and closing their mouth, popping and
clicking as they open their mouth or when they
chew. A lot of people they also
suffer from bruxism
which is tooth grinding at night in
particular, or tooth clenching.
These people often will be
given a dental splint which helps to
protect the teeth at night, and the
reason that TMJ or
bruxism may be worse at night is because
we don't have conscious control over the
muscles when we're asleep. For many
people the problems that they are
suffering from are actually caused by
tension in the muscles from the fascia
around the face, neck, and jaw. Your jaw
is controlled by a number of muscles and
in particular two muscles of chewing and
you have two sets of these, one on either
side. The first one is called the
temporalis muscle which is a fan
shaped muscle that sits at your temples
and the tendon comes down and attaches
into your jaw bone. The second muscle is
the one that we're going to be working
with today - it is called the masseter
muscle.
For its size the masseter is the
strongest muscle in the body and it's
multi-layered which means it's quite
thick, and there are layers of muscle
fibres and fascia
throughout the muscle. You can certainly
feel the strength when you clench your
jaw but to do these exercises you need
to have your jaw relaxed. Use
clenching your jaw just as a way of
finding the masseter, then when you do
the exercises,
keep your jaw relaxed with your mouth
just slightly open. So the first exercise
we're going to do is working on the
outside of the masseter and to do this
we're going to use our finger pads.
Place them just below your cheek
bone actually on the masseter muscle.
Allow your finger pads just to start to
sink into your skin. As you do this
imagine that they're sinking through and
making contact with the muscle fibres
and fascia
of the masseter beneath. The more you
imagine this, the more your body will
respond by letting go. Once you feel
you've actually got some contact with
the muscle, very slowly start to
traction down the line of the muscle.
The slower you do this the better because
you will feel what's going on,
and when you reach a point that feels
tight or sore, then just wait on that
point until it starts to release or ease.
This is a trigger point or a fascial
restriction which can be some of the
Cause. Just allow your finger pads to
continue slowly
until you reach to jaw. To do this exercise
at home can take two to five minutes and
you can do this exercise two or three
times a day to help release restrictions. The next
exercise we're going to do is working on
the inside of the mouth to access the
masseter muscle. Remembering that the
muscle runs in a line from the
cheekbone to the jawbone it's possible
to work with your thumb inside your
mouth and your fingers on the outside to
access the muscle. To do this you use
the hand on the opposite side to where
you want to work. Sliding your thumb
into your mouth between your teeth and
cheek, slide your thumb back as far as it
will go until you hit what feels like
bone. This is the masseter and if you
clench your jaw you'll feel it tighten so you
know where to work. With your thumb on
the inside and your fingers on the
outside, compress the muscle between the
two and wait for things to start to
release. Things may feel tender at first
but as long as you're there for 90
seconds to 2 minutes, things will start
to soften. Then you can continue to
work further down the muscle, doing the
same thing, working on any tender spots
that you find. The next exercise we're
going to do is a stretch for the front
of the chest and the throat coming up
into the jaw, because a lot of people
have tension here which can affect the
movement of the jaw and sometimes even
cause pain coming up into the jaw joint
or the ear. To work on this area it's
best if you can wear a top so that you
can
place your hands directly on the
skin. Cross your hands on the
skin just below the collarbones. Allow time for
the palms of your hands to sink into the
skin, imagining that you're making
contact with the muscles and the fascia
that are directly below the skin. Once you
feel you have that sense of contact, then
let your arms go heavy. Now you're
creating a slight downward pull towards
the floor. You're not forcing this,
you're not pulling, you're just allowing
the weight of your arms to create that
Stretch. For some people this may be
enough of a stretch that they feel in
their throat, but to increase the stretch
slightly you can just tip your head back.
Be mindful not to go too far back so
that you feel dizzy, but just enough to feel
the stretch coming up into your throat
and the underside of your jaw. You
can be here for 90 seconds to two
minutes to allow the fascia to start to
release, and as it releases you can turn
your head slowly to the side and you will
feel the stretch coming up the side of
your neck into your ear, and you can then turn to the
other side to stretch here. While you're
doing this make sure that you keep your
jaw nice and relaxed. just allow time for
things to start to release and let go.
For many people TMJ or jaw pain can
be caused in part by stress and in fact
they tend to find that the more stressed
they are, the more they clench or grind
their teeth, and the more pain they
have in their jaw. So when we're doing
exercises to help release the jaw it's a
good idea to do
a general relaxation exercise. So that's
what we're going to do, using two
myofascial balls
in a bag. Place the balls under your
neck and just allow your body to relax
around the balls. When you do this at
home, you can do it lying on the floor as
I am. You can have your knees bent or you
can have your legs flat, whichever is
more comfortable for you, or you can do
this on your bed if it's too
uncomfortable to be on the floor.
You start to relax the back of the
Neck, this is going to start to release
the base of the skull, and at the base of
the skull are lots of muscles and tissues
that attach into the neck, jaw and
shoulders. The more this area relaxes,
more it starts to take tension away
from my jaw. It's also a very nice
relaxation exercise to do because it
helps to engage the rest & digest
part of my nervous system, and that helps
my whole body and my mind to relax. When
you do this exercise, be here
anywhere from a couple of minutes to
five minutes or even longer depending on
how it feels. These exercises can help
to release the muscles and the fascia
around your neck
and your jaw and start to undo some of
the tensions that are causing your
current symptoms. You can find more
exercises like these in our Living Pain
Free online video programme which is
available through our website, where you
also find our myofascial release
kits