- How do you know if that pain you're having
is coming from your ear or your TMJ?
Well in this video, I'm gonna discuss the potential
causes of that pain and what you can do about it.
Coming up.
Hi guys, Cliff Olsen.
Doctor of audiology and founder of
applied hearing solutions in Anthem, Arizona.
And on this channel,
I cover a bunch of hearing related information
to help make you a better informed consumer.
So if you're into that, consider hitting
the subscribe button.
One thing you probably don't know about me is that
I actually used to be a massage therapist.
When I was going through my undergraduate studies
at Lindenwood University, I actually got my
massage license beforehand and started up
my own massage clinic so I had something to do
while going through school.
And I actually ended up building up a pretty decent
size clinic, and I would focus mostly on medical
or sports related issues.
One thing people would often come in with
would be jaw pain or TMJ dysfunction.
And massage therapy is actually a really effective
method of treatment for TMJ dysfunction.
But, one thing I noticed a lot was people would
come in for this jaw pain, and it actually ended up
not being jaw pain at all.
And so I would end up referring them to an ear, nose,
and throat specialist in order to identify if
it's actually an ear problem or a jaw problem.
Now obviously the ear and the tempura mandibular joint
are closely located, so it's really hard to identify
which one is actually causing the pain.
Problems with any one of them can actually refer pain
to the other area, so identifying this pain
can be very difficult.
Now often if this is a TMJ issue, it's likely caused
by the masseter muscle being too tight on the
particular side that you're having the pain on.
And this masseter muscle can become tight for
a variety of different reasons.
Maybe you're clenching your jaw, maybe you're
chewing on gum on that side exclusively.
Or maybe you have a dental misalignment problem.
And in some cases, it can even be arthritis, which
can accentuate the problems as well.
Now if this pain is coming from the ear, it can
actually be a little bit more serious.
Things like impacted ear wax, or negative middle
ear pressure from an ear infection, or swimmers ear.
Which is also known as otitis externa.
But even more seriously, you could have cholesteatoma,
which is actually the growth of epithelial cells
in your ear canal or your middle ear space that
can actually really wreak havoc on your ear.
And all of these situations can cause pain that
you might associate to jaw pain.
Now if the cause of this pain is actually your ear,
it can actually lead to issues like tinnitus, which is
that ringing and buzzing sound that you might hear.
And the stress associated with either the TMJ pain
or the ear pain can actually make tinnitus worse.
Or make you perceive it worse than it actually is.
And so until you get the problem corrected, it's likely
that this tinnitus issue, if you're having it, will be
perceived as more severe.
Now pain is pain.
So how do you actually identify if this pain is
being caused by your ear, or being caused by your TMJ?
Well the first step that you should really be taking
is going in to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist
otherwise known as an otorhinolaryngologist.
Together with an audiologist, they can test your hearing
and use observation to identify if it's actually
an ear problem or not.
If it is an ear problem, they'll be able to start
on the treatment, the appropriate treatment sooner.
In some of the more serious cases, like if it's
cholesteatoma, that cholesteatoma surgery can be
scheduled sooner rather than later.
Now if ear related issues are ruled out,
that's really good news.
That means it's likely TMJ dysfunction.
And like I said before, as a massage therapist, the
majority of causes of TMJ dysfunction is an
imbalance in the masseter muscles with one being
too tight, and the other side being a little too loose.
I'm gonna give you a simple little self massage technique
that you can use to help relieve some of that jaw pain.
What you'll do is you'll take your thumbs, push in
on your masseter muscles, and push them down.
What this does is it stretches out both sides and
actually aligns it a little bit better.
If the side that you're having the pain on has a knot
in there or you feel like it's excessively tight,
you can actually take and do what's called
cross fiber friction and go back and forth sideways
on the muscle, and then when you're done doing that,
you're gonna wanna push in and stretch it down again.
You always wanna make sure that you're keeping both
of those muscles the same length.
And so you do wanna treat both sides, not just
the side that you're having pain on.
Another thing that you can do is actually push in on
that masseter muscle while you're clenching your jaw.
That helps loosen the muscle up and then again, when
you're done doing that, you wanna let your jaw
go relaxed and stretch those muscles down on both sides.
Now self massage is great, but often going to a
licensed massage therapist is even better.
They have more techniques that they can use, and
they can do it much better likely than you can yourself.
But if you end up going to a massage therapist and
you're doing self massage, and you're not seeing
any improvement after a month or two, then it's
probably time to go see your dentist and see if
there's some kind of dental issue there.
And to see if there needs to be some kind of realignment
done with that.
I wanna make sure that you understand that the first
thing you should be doing is getting any kind of
ear problems ruled out.
And this means going to an ear, nose, and throat specialist
that has an audiologist so they can rule out any
kind of ear related issue.
Once that's ruled out, then you can focus primarily on
the TMJ, which is the likely cause if it's not
being caused by the ear.
And this would include going to a massage therapist,
and doing the self massage technique that I taught you
a little bit earlier.
If that's not helping after a month of two, then you
should really be going in to see your dentist to see
if it's an actual dental issue that's causing the problem.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions, leave them in the
comment section below.
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We'll see ya next time.