TMJ Symptoms – 5 Easy Steps to Home Relief

It can range from a vague, achy feeling all over your head, neck, and shoulders to intense pain that you’d swear is a migraine. The truth is that your painful symptoms could most likely be caused by TMJ. And it can range in intensity from minor irritation to pain enough to nearly knock you over and make daily life difficult.

TMJ stands for Temporal Mandibular Joint and by itself it is not a problem because everyone has two of them. It is the joint where the movable lower jaw bone, or mandible, is attached to the skull with a sling of muscles, ligaments, and capsular cartilage. It is when the joint becomes dysfunctional that problems arise and in fact the condition is known as TMD or Temporal Mandubular Dysfunction Syndrome. And, more recently, many medical and dental professionals refer to this broad group of painful symptoms as MPDS: Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction Syndrome.

The reason is that it is found more frequently than pain that does not originate from the joint. The joint was the original suspect because many times when examining people with painful symptoms, you would notice that the jaw joint made a clicking, popping, or grating sound. So where there’s smoke there’s got to be fire, right? Mistaken! When healthy people without symptoms were examined, their TM joints made the same sounds at about the same rate as people with pain. So it’s not always the joint.

Another thing that is touted as the cause of the symptoms is an improper bite, or malocclusion, which causes stress on the TM joint leading to the symptoms. And while it’s true that a bad bite can cause the ligaments surrounding the joint to become stretched or stressed, this may not be the cause. There are many cases of people having no teeth and not wearing their dentures without a history of pain. The same can be said for people who have many missing teeth or severely misaligned jaws.

So if it’s not the joint or the bite, what could be causing all this discomfort? Simply muscle spasms. And muscle spasms are the result of physical or psychological stress. There is a vast complex of nerves throughout the head, and spasms can cause referred pain anywhere along these nerve branches.

The end result is a very painful situation, but the good news is that there can be very simple ways to get relief and break the cycle of pain. The key to relief is finding the source of your pain. As I mentioned earlier, pain can be caused by stressors, whether physical or psychological, so let’s alleviate some of these:

1. First, and perhaps the simplest key, is to make sure you’re adequately hydrated. Although water consumption has increased, very few people drink 8 full glasses of water a day. And many experts believe that each soft drink, coffee, or alcoholic beverage cancels out an equal amount of water. How does dehydration lead to TMJ-associated facial pain? Well, the right amount of water helps flush out toxins, lactic acid, and the byproducts of muscle activity. A buildup of these toxins in the facial muscles can cause fatigued muscles to spasm or not allow them to relax. So baby!
2. Many patients report increased discomfort when they wake up in the morning, resulting in headache or neck pain that lasts all day. If the pain is more severe on one side of your face or neck, it may be due to your sleeping position or clothing. If you sleep on your side or rest your jaw on one hand resting on the pillow while you sleep, the muscles on that side of your face will stretch. The joint on the opposite side of the face will move into the socket painfully. Therefore, the muscles on the side near the pillow will attempt to contract to return to their “resting length” and relieve pain in the socket on the opposite side. Many times, simply being aware of this problem and changing your sleeping position will alleviate the symptoms.
3. If you wake up with pain on both sides of your head or face, or if your teeth ache or become loose, it’s likely that you’re clenching or bruxing while you sleep. Many dentists will prescribe a bite guard for this, but it really only serves to protect the teeth and provide cushioning for the joint. Muscle spasms remain.
4. If you take the stress to bed, it will be solved with the night squeeze. The key here is to find something that soothes and relaxes you before you go to sleep. A hot bath, herbal tea or a glass of wine are helpful to start the relaxation process. Take off your worry hat 30 minutes before you plan to go to bed and make a vow to think only about pleasant past experiences.
5. Your facial muscle spasms have a focus, locate the focus and begin to eliminate the pain. TMJ pain is not evenly distributed throughout the affected area of ​​the head and neck. Some areas will be more painful than others, and one spot will be the most painful of all. To find the focal point, start pressing along the painful areas of your face. Start at the lowest area of ​​pain and work your way up to the top of your head. One area will feel extremely sensitive to touch – this is the focal point. You can focus your relief effort on this spot and the rest of the pain will go away. Start by placing a warm compress on the area for about 20 minutes, and then massage the area with your thumb. Apply maximum pressure and move in a circular motion. Then end with something like Ben Gay or Icy Hot. Break the muscle spasm at the focal point and the rest of the muscles will relax.

And lastly, just a point of common sense. The more you exercise and use your facial muscles during your daily activities, the more likely they are to spasm while you sleep and develop more intense symptoms. So if you have ever experienced discomfort, you should definitely not chew gum. And even if you haven’t, don’t leave a piece of gum in your mouth for more than 20 minutes. Most foods eaten in moderation will not cause problems, but you will need to avoid chewing on ice, hard candy, and if the crusts cause a problem, they will need to be cut off. Also, jewelry on the tongue and lips leads to parafunctional habits that will cause spasms of the head and neck muscles. So those will have to come out.

If you need more information to ease the pain of your TMJ symptoms this is an excellent resource. It is also very important to remember that if you do not notice an improvement in your symptoms for several weeks, you should seek professional advice.

You won’t wake up one morning and be completely pain free, but you should notice a slight improvement each day. These common sense ideas should ease your TMJ symptoms over time, and being pain free will be great!