Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
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TMJ Pain Can Be Reduced With Regular Jaw Exercise

Posted on 9/7/2020 by Malmquist Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

The joints which are responsible for jaw movements, including opening and closing, are called temporomandibular joints. The temporomandibular joints get a lot of use from talking and chewing. Therefore, they are often a cause of pain as they repeated daily use. It's particularly unpleasant if TMJ pain makes chewing or talking painful, as it interferes with daily life and functioning. TMJ pain is problematic, particularly if there are other underlying issues. If you´re dealing with TMJ pain, please come by our office so we may assess the problem.

TMJ Exercise as Pain Management

Simply massaging the painful area may help reduce pain by reducing muscle tension. It´s also important to massage the painful area before one begins exercising the jaw. After the jaw is relaxed, there are a number of exercises one can choose from. There are strengthening exercises, relaxation exercises, and stretching exercises. Strengthening exercises should not be done in times of severe pain. Strengthening exercises build strength by pushing against resistance. One strengthening exercises is placing a thumb against a chin, then pushing your chin against the force of your thumb, and opening your mouth slowly against that force. You should hold your mouth open for ten seconds.

A relaxation exercise would be repeatedly slowly inhaling and exhaling. Repeat ten times. This reduces stress, which alone alleviates TMJ. A common stretching would be slowly opening one´s mouth and holding it open for ten seconds. After closing, open your mouth slowly and move your lower jaw back and forth for up to ten times. As the muscles are strengthened, they help manage chronic TMJ pain.

Of course, there are a variety of other exercise techniques and other pain management techniques that can be used for TMJ. We would love to discuss these with you. Please give us a visit so that we may better inform you on proper TMJ exercise and pain management.

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1750 SW Harbor Way, Suite # 100, Portland, OR. 97201

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