Where is jaw pain?
Where is our temporomandibular joint? Right here, on the sides of our head, just in front of our ears. If you put your fingers on your cheeks and along the jawbone, you’ll feel where the hinge is. That’s your temporomandibular joint. It connects our jawbone to our skull. Really simple but as I said it can be really painful when it’s out of alignment or balance.
The temporomandibular joint is the hinge joint of the mandible bone and the temporal bones. It’s the connection of our jaw to our skull, and there are four main muscles that work this joint.
The medial and the lateral pterygoid muscles, the masseter, and the temporalis muscles. The masseter joins the zygomatic arch and the mandible, and the temporalis, comes down the side of your head, from the temporal bone, all the way down, to join the mandible bone, at the temporomandibular joint. The temporalis muscle is actually quite big. If you put your hands on the side of your head, with your fingers fanned out, that gives you an idea of its size. The lateral and medial pterygoids are both internal muscles so they’re harder to reach. You’ll probably want professional help, if they’re tight or irritated.
These are our chewing muscles, our muscles of mastication. They move your jaw forward and backward and rotate it. So you use them all the time. Constantly. The temporomandibular joint is the hardest working joint in our body. We use them for chewing, swallowing, speaking smiling crying, and even breathing. We use them all the time. From birth, all the way through our whole lifespan. They’re working all the time.
Can jaw pain be caused by stress? Why does jaw pain happen?
So why do they go out of alignment or get tight? They get irritated. You can imagine, because they’re being overworked. They can be particularly a problem when you get stressed, and start clenching your teeth, your jaw, your fists. Your whole body can get tight! And the jaw is one of the strongest muscles in the whole body as well.
It can get really tight when you start clenching your teeth because you’re stressed, and posture can also pull it out of alignment. If you haven’t taken the time to get a good ergonomic setup, you could be looking up, or looking down at your computer screen which can put your jaw out of alignment. Even when you’re chilling out on the couch, if you’re not conscious and aware of how you’re sitting that slouching can put your jaw out as well. Really tightening your jaw muscles.
Here’s a good way to check if your jaw muscles are tight. The masseter muscle in particular is quite superficial, quite close to the outside of your face. You can feel it if you are pinching your cheek. So gently pinch along the line of your lower jaw, between the mandible and the temporal bone at the top of your cheek. Pinch gently, because they can be really painful if they are tight. The pinching itself can tell you if they are tight. If pinching your cheek gives you a really good amount of flesh, it probably isn’t so tight. But if you can’t get much cheek flesh in your fingers, it could be very tight.
How can you relieve jaw pain?
Things you can do for yourself are actually more pinching, rubbing, and working right into that joint. Keep it gentle! That will help to ease the temporal and the masseter muscles. Reducing the tension in them. It can be a really good way to let them loosen, give them some space, and help them unwind. Helping them to release the stress that you might have been feeling. Also, taking some deep breaths, can help your whole body relax. You know, if you just reduce and release tension from your jaw, your whole body can relax more. That’s how impactful your jaw can be.
When you are slouching on the couch, you might also notice that your tongue is not sitting on the roof of your mouth, tucked in behind your front top teeth. When it’s not in that position it can actually stress the jaw more. If you adjust your posture even just sitting up straight, you may notice, that your tongue is quite likely to come into that natural, more relaxed posture, of being at the roof of your mouth, tucked behind your teeth. So that’s another thing you can do to help support your jaw muscles and help really take some stress out of your whole body. Just by reducing the tension in your temporomandibular joint.
So thank you for joining us today. 🙂
Even though we’re not together physically, we are connecting, and I’m sending you all my positive thoughts, as you watch, whether it’s live or replay.
