Jaw Pain and Stress
The jaw is one of the most used joints in our body. You move it when you eat and when you talk.
One of the common traits I see in most of my patients with jaw pain is elevated stress and sometimes anxiety. When we are under stress, no matter if it is from work/ family/ financial/ emotional, we tend to clench more. This will lead to dysfunction in the jaw or the temporomandibular joint (TMJ).
Common symptoms included
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Sore jaw
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Clicking when opening and closing mouth
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Difficulty open mouth wide eg when visit dentist
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Difficulty chewing and talking
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Mouth stuck open after open wide eg after yawning
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Commonly comes with neck pain, migraine/ headache, shoulder pain, inner ear pain
DIY test & check
Test it now
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Place a finger on each side of your cheek, just slightly in front of your ears
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Clench your teeth
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Feel the masseter (refer to picture) muscles tensing up and bulging underneath your fingers
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Next, place your palm on each side of your head
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Clench your teeth
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Feel the temporalis (refer to picture) muscles tensing up and bulging underneath your palms
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Now you can appreciate how stress causes jaw pain and migraine
Test it later
The upper and lower jaw (or the upper and bottom row of teeth) should be slightly separated with your tongue touching the roof of your mouth just behind the teeth when you are at rest. However this does not happen when you are stressed which leads you to bite/ clench your teeth.
Spot-check yourself several times a day eg at work, walking, driving, queuing and just before your sleep. Check if your upper and lower jaw/ teeth are slightly separated. If you catch yourself clenching, relax your jaw and check your jaw again from time to time. Gradually you will be able to avoid the jaw clenching habit.
Stress Management
Stress is an emotional and physical reaction to challenges and demands. Everyone experiences stress from time to time. It can be positive sometimes. However if you are dealing with stress for a long period of time, it will put your health at risk and jaw pain being just one of the many issues.
Managing stress is often easier to say than done as it is multifactorial. One of the easiest ways I often use with my clients is performing diaphragmatic breathing. You do not need anything to start and you can do it anywhere, anytime. Check out "The Healing Power of Breathing" to learn more.
How physiotherapy helps my jaw pain?
At Beyond Physio, we treat clients with jaw pain as a whole, aiming to address the root cause of the problem. In addition to the jaw, we will check and treat also the neck, shoulders and sometimes even the pelvis! Yes there is a huge connection between the pelvis and the jaw!
Having known that stress being one of the major causes leading to jaw pain, we will show you a few practical ways to manage your stress. We will show you how exactly to do it step-by-step. We know telling you “Just Relax” is not the way!