Having any type of pain in your mouth and jaw is no fun, but temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain can be the absolute worst. There’s a TMJ on each side of your jaw, and most people would commonly refer to it as the jaw joint. This joint is used for everything from talking to chewing, which means TMJ pain can make your daily life very difficult. However, you don’t have to continue to be in pain if you learn these two easy steps for how to treat TMJ pain.
1. Do simple jaw exercises daily
One mistake that people make when they aren’t sure how to treat TMJ pain is to clench their jaw. The goal of doing this is typically to lessen the pain you feel, but clenching the jaw actually tenses up jaw muscles and can make TMJ pain worse. Instead, you want to try some jaw exercises to loosen the jaw muscles. A clinical trial report published by the TMJ Association (TMJA) recommends a simple exercise for this condition.
First, do some small opening and closing movements to warm up the joint. Next, place the thumb and finger on each side of your jaw near the joint. Once they’re in position, pull down lightly on the jaw until you start to feel a slight pain in the affected joint, and then hold this stretch for 30 seconds. Repeat this procedure three times to complete one set, and try to do three or four sets of the exercise daily until recovered.
2. Relax
Many people know about the positive effects relaxation techniques can have, and being a factor in how to treat your TMJ pain is one benefit these techniques can offer. For example, performing meditative breathing exercises encourages you to relax all the muscles in your body, including the jaw muscles. Relaxing these muscles helps reduce pressure on the TMJ and may help decrease your pain. Relaxation exercises can also help increase blood flow in the body, and this can help promote healing if your pain is the result of a TMJ injury.
Physical therapists at Panther Physical Therapy can help you treat TMJ pain
Are you looking for an expert to help you figure out how to treat your TMJ pain? Our physical therapists at Panther Physical Therapy can help. We’ll start by performing a one-on-one screening to determine the exact cause of your TMJ pain. Our team will then build a personalized treatment plan for you that can include:
Don’t wait another day to begin treating your TMJ pain. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an appointment.