10 Proven Ways of Treating TMJ At Home
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Open your mouth and rub the muscles near your TMJs until they relax. Many people who have TMJ are looking for TMJ home treatments or remedies. TMJ pain can result from a number of conditions and underlying issues. For example, your knuckles are a hinge joint and your shoulders are a ball and socket joint. The TMJ is unique in that it functions as both a hinge joint and a sliding joint.
Learning to handle stress levels can help reduce your perception of pain, especially with TMJ disorder. There are many different relaxation techniques you can choose from, but the following are great for relaxing the jaw muscles. Acupuncture therapy involves inserting needles into the jaw, face, and ear.
Safe Home Remedies For A Stomach Ulcer Pain Relief
Spit out and rinse your mouth with clean and cold water. Exercises for the jaw to maintain the range of motion with minimal pain. This form of arthritis can be very painful, especially when the jaw starts moving together.
A massage therapist, physical therapist, and even chiropractors can help. Our Dental Nutrition article has more tips on eating healthy to support your smile. A car accident, a sports injury, or even a slip and fall can cause minute misalignments to occur.
TMJ Specific Exercises
Learn about the possible causes of jaw pain as well as 10 ways to find relief. Keeping your tongue on the roof of your mouth, place one finger on your TMJ and another finger on your chin. For a variation of this exercise, place one finger on each TMJ as you completely drop your lower jaw and back.
Stress can also trigger long periods of clenching and grinding. Treating TMJ at home includes stress management practices. Our guide, Temporomandibular Disorders – Dental Care and You provides oral hygiene self-care tips that you can do at home, as well as suggestions for dental appointments. These should never be a first-line treatment, but they can help in more severe cases. Note that doctors who only prescribe pain medications aren’t working to address the root cause of the issue.
Tips for relieving pain during dental care
This may account for why ear issues often accompany TMJ dysfunction as well. Add an antiseptic mouth rinse to your daily dental care regimen. Move your bottom jaw forward so your bottom teeth are in front of your top teeth. As the exercise becomes easier, increase the thickness of the object between your teeth. Short-term use of over-the-counter pain medicines or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs , such as ibuprofen, may help.
Reduce caffeine intake – Caffeine can make a person agitated and increase muscle tension and anxiety. If your jaw problems are stress related or tension related, walking back the amount of coffee you drink in a day may provide some help. Ice – TMJ is usually an issue of inflammation. Remember to apply ice for no more than 20 minutes at a time and never have the ice in direct contact with your skin. TMJ pain rarely needs intervention with medication, injections, or surgery.
Instead go for pastas, soups and other foods that are easy to eat. Skip coffee and tea as caffeine can increase tension in muscles. Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We link primary sources — including studies, scientific references, and statistics — within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. Whatever the cause, embracing habit changes, such as quitting chewing gum, can benefit people with TMJ disorders.
The joints connect your jawbone to your skull. Your TMJ springs into action each time you talk, chew, and swallow. When necessary, your doctor can prescribe stronger pain or anti-inflammatory medications, muscle relaxants, or antidepressants to help ease symptoms. Weekly updates on conditions, treatments, and news about everything happening inside pain medicine. Stress management doesn’t have to be complex either. Simply sitting and focusing on your breath for ten deep and full breaths a few times a day can help relieve tension around the jaw.
In fact, 60-80% of those with TMJ pain who are treated with conservative therapy have a full recovery. Pain from the temporomandibular joint affects 10 million people or possibly more in this country. Pain from this area will impact women twice as often as men. This is likely related to the frequency of joint hypermobility being more prevalent in women compared to men. Touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind the upper front teeth.
We suggest you read through and print out our list of questions (.pdf) to ask your doctor prior to consenting to any treatment. A survey of TMJ patients, conducted by the TMJA, showed the most frequently used intervention (65% of respondents) was thermal therapy to the jaw. 74% of the respondents said that use of compresses resulted in a reduction of their symptoms. Most people with TMJ have relatively mild or periodic symptoms which may improve on their own within weeks or months with simple home therapy.
The above-mentioned home remedies for TMJ are claimed to be able to reduce its symptoms naturally. Although the home remedies are rather time consuming and slow-acting, their results are surprising. Choose some of them and alternate them in your treating to see how effective they are. Apply heat for 5 minutes and repeat several times a day. In many cases, however, the cause of temporomandibular joint disorders is unclear.
For small flare-ups, start by icing your jaw if the injury is more acute and recent , or apply a warm, moist compress to release your muscles. You can also take over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications to relieve pain. Since multiple conditions (e.g., tooth decay, arthritis, sinus issues, or gum disease) can cause similar symptoms, it’s best to see a dentist for a true diagnosis. Your dentist will assess your health and dental history and conduct a physical exam of your mouth and jaw to determine the cause of your problems. Try calming exercises such as lightly touching your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Avoid chewing on things like nails, pencils and ice.
If the conservative treatments described in this article don't give you relief, seek help from a dentist, preferably one who is a TMJ specialist. If you experience frequent headaches, bothersome clicking and popping in the jaw, or pain in the face, neck, or shoulders, the problem may literally be all in your head. You may be suffering from a misalignment of the temporomandibular joint , the joint that allows your jaws to open, close, and move sideways. Counseling , massage therapy, physical therapy, injections and medication may all be helpful, alone or in combination. Surgery for TMD is a last resort and should be considered for only the most severe cases with clear surgical objectives.
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