by Christian Goodman
You've probably been looking for a way to heal your TMJ for some time. You may have read several articles, visited dozens web sites and even read some books. And most likely, the conclusion of all your research is: Nobody knows how to cure TMJ.
Your doctor is probably doing all he can. He's most likely given you strong pain relief pills and maybe some muscle relaxation medicines. But there is not much more he can do.
All these medicines fail. Even if they reduce the pain a little for a while in the beginning, they'll stop working, little by little, as your body gets immune to them.
Many dentist try to help TMJ patients. They make special dental implants. These implants, at best. save your teeth from grinding down at night. But they don't take your pain away.
So why do TMJ experts fail you?
You can't really blame them tough. TMJ is one of the most complex conditions you'll ever find. Every TMJ patient has different original causes for his or her condition. And not only one cause or accident. There are probably several contributing factors causing your pain. Both physical and emotional.
Overwhelming feelings like stress, grief, or intense anger are often basic triggers of TMJ. Injuries, like car accidents or sport injuries are another common triggers. You may not even have noticed at all when your condition began to develop. Maybe you bumped into something but didn't give it a second thought. Few days later you began to experience pain. Most often, there is no way to know the original trigger. Okay, that's enough. Lets talk about what we DO KNOW!
We know for a fact, the jaw joints are always misplaced to some degree. Tiny misplacement can be enough to cause terrible pain. Some patients think the irritation is even worse than the pain. Here are some obvious symptoms...
Jaw locking opened or closed ... Uncontrollable jaw or tongue movements ... Clicking, popping jaw joints ... Clenching or grinding at night ... Grating sounds ... Inability to open the jaw smoothly or evenly ... Jaw deviates to one side when opening ... Inability to "find bite" with teeth Limited opening ... Frequent, migraine type headaches ... Extreme pain in cheek muscles ... Discomfort or pain to any of these areas.
... just to name few.
What we also know is that the muscles around the jaw are always tense. Sometimes they're torn a little, sometimes they're sore, but they're always tense. Weak, tense muscles do not support the jaw in the right way and will actually push it out of position, making this big part of the problem.
This is similar to back problems. Most people who suffer from back problems have weak, tense muscles. The back problem may have started by using bad position when working, by minor injury, or something else that didn't seem very serious at the time.
To avoid the mild pain, the muscles in the back get tense. It jut happens. This is a function nature gave us to deal with pain. The real problem begins when the tension in the back muscles push the spine (even just a little bit) out of place. What should only have been minor problem if the person had exercised and strengthen the back muscles, is now chronic, serious condition.
It's no different with TMJ. Something that probably began as minor problem (maybe small bump on the jaw or period of intense feelings) is now becoming serious problem as the jaw muscles push on the jaw joints. This, then leads to series of other problems.
Now the two jaw joints do not cooperate together. They're unbalanced and uncontrollable. It shouldn't really come as surprise that everything gets stuck. The pain is unbearable. It's like begin constantly tortured.
It's inevitable that some nerves get squeezed when the joints are misplaced. The nerves that control your balance system, for example, are directly connected to nerves around the jaw. This is partly what causes your headaches and also dizziness and lack of balance.
There is no isolation when it comes to muscles. All muscles in your body are interconnected. Either directly or through the nerve system. If your jaw muscles get tense, so will all muscles closely connected to it. Most obvious example is your neck and shoulders. I'm sure they've turned into rocks since your TMJ began to develop. Right?
Less noticeable is the tension in all the small muscles in your head. Including your other face muscles, tongue, throat and even eyes. You may also feel like your throat is narrower now than before (you're not crazy it's true).
All this tension put together causes many of the secondary symptoms of TMJ. Including... arm and finger tingling, numbness and or pain ... pain of the hard palate in the mouth ... tongue pain ... voice fluctuations ... swallowing difficulties ... hissing, buzzing, ringing, or roaring sounds ... blurring of vision ... watering of the eyes ... swallowing difficulties.
...and hundreds of other secondary symptoms, you may or may not have experienced your self.
There is no way to heal your TMJ, unless you loosen up and strengthen all the muscles connected to the jaw and the jaw muscles. This does actually not require hard effort tough. The exercises are simple and easy to do. But you have to practice them if they're are going to work for you.
1) The jaw exercises are self explained. They strengthen and loosen up the jaw muscles directly, so the muscles will not push the jaw joint out of place but guide them into right position.
2) Consider how close the tongue is to the jaw. It's no wonder how important it is to remove any tension from this muscle. You do that using simple tongue exercises.
3) The throat exercises strengthen the throat. The throat muscles are some of these 'hidden' muscles we seldom pay attention to. They're however extremely important and if they're stiff, you'll suffer several symptoms in your throat.
4) The neck and shoulder muscles are directly connected to the Jaw muscles. These muscles are usually the first one to freeze when the jaw muscles get stiff. They can, however, easily be put back into regular function using powerful neck and shoulder exercises.
5) The breathing exercises will nurture and loosen up all the muscles in your head. What's more, they'll will also relief any emotional stress built up in your muscles. You'll be amazed how effective they're.
Most people who practice these exercises claim to get really good relief from them. Many totally heal their TMJ permanently. This is amazing, considering how complicated this condition is.
But before you get your hope to high, I'm going to be brutally honest...
It varies a lot how quickly people receive relief using these exercises. Some people get healed almost over night. Others need up to 2 months to get acceptable results. You've been developing this condition for years (even if you just recently experienced the symptoms). So be patient waiting for results.
The muscles around the jaw must regain their old strength and flexibility. So must the jaw muscle itself. But that's not enough. The jaw muscles must guide and lock the jaw joints into natural healthy position. This happens little by little (often fraction of an inch a day).
Christian Goodman - learn more at his natural health alternative blog - is a well recognized health researcher. His Tmj Treatment Program has been proven extremely effective to quickly heal TMJ, Bruxing And Tooth Grinding (clenching).
