TMJ/TMD Rehab

Does your jaw click, get caught open, and/ or cause pain?

Are you having to limit eating some of your favorite foods because it hurts to open your mouth or chew?

Are you nervous that yawning will cause you jaw pain?

Orthopaedic Specialists at Bodies in Balance can work with you ( often in conjunction with your dental practitioner) to help alleviate Temporomandibular ( Jaw pain) Dysfunction.

What can physical therapy do?

  • Manual Therapy techniques: Oftentimes the lateral pterygoid muscle ( which attaches to the TMJ disc), along with other muscles around the jaw, become taught. Physical Therapy strategies that may include trigger point dry needling to loosen tight muscles around the jaw mobilizations of the and upper cervical spine and jaw can be beneficial in reducing pain.
  • Correcting Movement Dysfunction of the jaw through exercise, body mechanic and ergonomics
  • Teaching Stress Reducing Techniques to avoid Bruxing (grinding) of teeth

Research supports the use of Physical Therapy in treatment of Jaw Pain. “Patient education and physical therapy brought about substantial improvements in the maximum painless mouth opening, jaw function score, and pain score.” as noted by Xu et al in 2021.

Lili Xu, Bin Cai, Shenji Lu, Shuai Fan, Kerong Dai, “The Impact of Education and Physical Therapy on Oral Behaviour in Patients with Temporomandibular Disorder: A Preliminary Study”, BioMed Research International, vol. 2021, Article ID 6666680, 7 pages, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6666680