Does your JAW hurts ?

In medical terms our JAW is known as temporo mandibular joint or what we usually refer to as TMJ. Your jaw pain can be so severe that it can hamper day to day lifestyle activities. Physiotherapy plays an active role and is first line of treatment for Jaw pain because of TMJ dysfunction.

The joint is one of the most commonest used joints in the human body. The TMJ is indulge in providing Jaw movements which helps in breathing, eating, chewing, talking and expression of feeling and emotions. Any uneven displacement of joint causes Temporomandibular disorder.

Anatomy of TMJ Dysfunction – JAW PAIN - why ??

Our jaw is a joint between the jaw bone i.e., Mandible & the skull bone i.e., Skull bone.

The joint functions in two phases – Transitional Phase & the rotational phase.

In transitional phase – Mandible along with the disc glides forward on the temporalis bone.

In rotational phase – The mandibular head spins inside the joint.

Incoordination or misalignment in these movements can cause painful symptoms or TMJ dysfunction.

Why do the TMJ malalignment occurs ?

The TMJ is prone to get injured in variety of ways which can lead to malalignment or the painful movements.
Traumatic – Trauma to the joint can lead to hypermobility or stiffness of one of the joint because of scarring. The wear and tear is accelerated because of this unequal movement.
Grinding – Any kind of clenching or grinding activities during sleep may lead to disc injury, muscle spasm or injury to the TMJ.
Posture – The muscles which controls the jaw are mostly connected to the upper back region and weakness of muscles especially when the person is biting hard or large objects may lead to injured TMJ.

In most of the cases, the patient cannot point any specific incident but rather describes a condition that comes slowly and worsens over time.

Common Symptoms of TMJ Dysfunction -

The symptoms may vary from mild to severe. This can sometimes make patient disable to eat solid food. Some of the other associated symptoms are –

• Clicking or Popping (May be painful or Painless)

• Jaw Locking in an open position

• Painful TMJ (Just in front of ear hole)

• Headache & Dizziness

• Muscular spasm on the other side of the head or at the angle of their jaw.

How we Assess your TMJ ?

During your TMJ examination, Our Physiotherapist will assess your –

• Temporomandibular Joint – Coordination & Movement pattern

• Muscle tension and length

• Jaw range of motion

If you problem is an Opening issue : Then your problems may include -

• TMJ hypermobility

• TMJ Stiffness or arthritis

• Your TMJ disc displacement disorder can be intermittent or permanent lock

• Posture issue at the level of cervical spine

TMJ Closing problems include:

• Open locked joint, which can be manipulated open or an

• problem in occlusion, which may require a bite assessment from your dentist.

How We can help ?

Pain relief for Jaw Dysfunction – In the initial phase of your visit, Through our advanced technology electrotherapeutic & thermal modalities we try to relieve your pain and parallel to that our team focuses on manual therapy to rectify the primary cause.
Posture Correction – The posture oriented jaw dysfunction is mainly observed in patients with chronic forward head posture and the primary focus of our experts are to maintain your posture appropriately by selective strengthening and stretching of set of muscles and guide you appropriately for posture and ergonomics.

Improving Temporomandibular Joint Mobility – The TMJ dysfunction assessment showing stiffness because of any previous resulted injury or trauma can be mobilized with manual techniques and Our experts will teach you certain stretches that you need to perform daily for few days between you come for follow up visits.
Reducing Temporomandibular Muscle Spasm – Our doctors are experts in assessing and ruling out if your TMJ is not recovering because of muscle spasm. Our manual therapy technique will reduce your muscle spasm and promotes appropriate joint alignment and movement which in turn results in pain free ROM.

Strengthening of TMJ hypermobility – This free jaw movements occurs because of muscular weakness and can even lead to dislocation in near future. That’s why our team of experts mainly focus on muscle strengthening and correction of your movement pattern.

At MAKINO CARE, Our team of experts first focuses on your thorough assessment – Specific to your problem and then customized the best treatment plan suitable for you.

In Case of Severe Dysfunction -

Our team believes in comprehensive care and giving the best to the patient. So in case we feel we can’t treat the condition on our end. Without wasting much of your time we refer you to the orthodontist or maxillofacial surgeon for further management.

If you are having any problem or pain in eating, chewing or grinding. We can definitely help.

Give us a call at +91-9650601823 or write us at – healthcaremakino@gmail.com