Is your Jaw Pain a Warning Sign?
Are you tired of dealing with persistent jaw pain? Have you been to the doctor, the dentist, and/or the urgent care clinic?Let me guess… the only answer you were given is "it's probably TMJ" but no other solution to get rid of this nagging pain. Maybe they gave you a prescription for pain medication or maybe they gave you a mouthguard but this still doesn’t explain why your jaw is hurting.
In this blog post, my goal is to show you how your jaw pain could be a symptom of other health issues such as :
Sleep Disorders
Muscular Imbalances
Improper Breath Patterns
Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders.
Sleep Disorders
Have you been told you grind your teeth? Do you wake up in the morning with a sore jaw or maybe even a headache? Do you wake up feeling exhausted?
Maybe you don’t wake up with any symptoms at all and it’s your dentist who told you that you have wear and tear on your teeth and that you need a night guard.
Grinding your teeth at night is also known as sleep bruxism. This is not normal and it’s not just because of stress. I hate to tell you this, but a night guard will not stop the grinding, all it will do is protect your teeth from further damage. In some cases, wearing a night guard will actually make you clench your jaw even more!
Nighttime grinding has been classified as a movement disorder but what does that mean?
When you sleep, if your brain detects that the airway is being affected by your tongue, it wakes you up, just enough with these micro movements of your jaw to pull the tongue away from the back of your throat and open up the airway. So it’s no wonder that you wake up with jaw pain, or a headache, or feeling utterly exhausted!
Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that you need a CPAP machine. However, a sleep study would be a great place to start. There’s a whole continuum of sleep disorders, of which sleep apnea is only one.
Check out the following sites for more great information on sleep disorders:
Muscular Imbalances
Have you ever watched yourself open and close your jaw in the mirror? Does your jaw track one side? Or maybe it opens in an S pattern? All of these nuances are telling us that there are muscle imbalances at play.
So how do we deal with this? Great question!
Just like any other muscle in your body, we need to do a full assessment to determine which muscles are weak so that we know where to start. We also need to figure out why some muscles are weaker than others. You may be surprised, but it might not just be just your jaw muscles. It could also be an issue with the muscles of your tongue or even your throat.
Some providers may recommend the use of paralytics (Botox) to address muscular imbalances. While this approach may be temporarily helpful with pain management, it does absolutely nothing to address the actual imbalances at play.
The best way to address muscle imbalances would be to work with any of the following:
a massage therapist
a myofunctional therapist
a physiotherapist
a chiropractor
Just make sure that they have extensive training in treating the jaw because generally speaking, the training received in school is very limited.
Incorrect Breathing Patterns
How do you know if your breathing properly I mean, breathing is breathing right?
Well, not necessarily.
The number of people who breathe through their mouth and aren’t aware of it is mind blowing. So when did this start?
It goes without saying that during the Pandemic in 2020, many people reported that it was challenging to breathe while wearing a mask. A 2022 study by Bhattacharya found that "using a face mask causes an increased chance of mouth breathing". Since we know that it doesn't take long for a new habit to stick and become the norm, more and more people were mouth breathing without even realizing it.
However, mouth breathing isn’t the only dysfunctional breath pattern out there. Some people are shallow breathers, meaning that they use mostly their upper chest to breathe. This has a lot to do with the nature of our jobs, especially for those who work at a desk for most of the day. Spending 6 to 8 hours in a seated position compresses the
The right breath pattern is to use our diaphragm and focus on the lower rib cage expanding and contracting with every breath. There are some great resources available to work through this. You may want to look into the Buteyko Method or the Wim Hof method.
If you are looking for some other great resources, feel free to check out the following:
Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders
Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders are a mouthful! No pun intended.
Let’s break it down. Oral means mouth facial means face mayo is muscle and functional well function. So basically, this means that the function of the muscles of the mouth and face aren’t working properly.
There are over 30 different OMD’s in existence. The most common include tongue ties, low resting tongue posture, and tongue/jaw dependency.
On top of its role in breathing, the tongue also supports the TMJ when it is fully up in the palate. if it rests in the floor of the mouth, it actually puts stress on the TMJ and it’s muscles.
Tongue ties also referred to as tethered oral tissue can also be a contributing factor as to why the tongue is unable to sit up in the palate. The issue with the tongue sitting in the floor of the mouth is that it reduces the amount of airspace, to which the body reacts by pulling the head forward to open up the airway. This can result in upper back, neck and shoulder pain on top of the jaw pain. It’s a vicious circle, to say the least.
You’ve probably never really thought about this, but the reality is that the tongue and the jaw should move independently of each other. When this isn’t the case, you are overworking your jaw muscles and your tongue muscles too. This ends up leading to muscle imbalances and eventually jaw pain.
So now that you've had a chance to read everything over, you're probably asking yourself "How do I treat this?"
Myofunctional Therapy
Although myofunctional therapy has been around for over 100 years it’s just starting to gain traction now. More and more people are choosing this treatment option because of its holistic approach.
However, before you decide to start myofunctional therapy, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
Time- You need time. you need to be willing to make time in your schedule to fit in your exercises. The more consistent you are with your program, the better your results will be.
Cost - You will typically need anywhere from 10 to 12 sessions to complete your program. These sessions are bi-weekly in nature and would span the course of approximately six months.
If you want to learn more about Myofunctional Therapy, check out the following resources:
In conclusion, if you’re struggling with TMJ dysfunction, it’s crucial to consider that your jaw pain may be a symptom of other underlying health issues, such as sleep disorders, muscular imbalances, incorrect breathing patterns, or orofacial myofunctional disorders.
By addressing these potential contributing factors, whether through a sleep study, myofunctional therapy, or working with specialists trained in jaw health, you can find a more comprehensive and lasting solution. Don’t settle for temporary fixes—take the time to explore all the possibilities and get to the bottom of what’s really causing your discomfort. Your journey to relief might start with looking beyond the jaw itself.
About the Author
Jeannine Weddell, RMT, is a registered massage therapist with the CMTO. With a passion for holistic wellness, Jeannine is dedicated to helping clients find relief from jaw pain. For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit www.mlniagara.janeapp.com.
This blog provides general information and discussions about health and related subjects. The information and other content provided in this blog, website or in any linked materials are not intended and should not be considered, or used as a substitute for, medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
