Miscellaneous
In this time of increased stress (read: COVID-19), I know that I am more aware of my jaw and the pain it is causing in my head & neck. The jaw joint itself is fairly complicated and made up of three structures: the mandibular fossa (a depression on the temporal bone), the mandibular condyle (on the lower bone of the jaw), and the articular disc (between the two bones). The articular disc actually separates the joint into two compartments. One compartment does the opening and closing, and the other compartment does gliding & translation, which are the acts of sliding your lower jaw forward & back, side to side. In order to adequately open the jaw more than a few centimetres, we need to have both depression (opening) and gliding. Therefore we need both compartments of the jaw to work together. So what causes jaw pain? Well, like a lot of things in the medical & science world, we don't have one cause and the causes are not entirely understood. One cause that we do know is the muscular component. Stats are saying that 80% of jaw pain primarily comes from the musculature. In my experience, the most commonly aggravated muscles are the masseter and the temporalis. So this is where I generally begin my treatment. When I treat TMD, I go directly to the musculature. Generally I do this with manual trigger point therapy, but sometimes acupuncture is needed. In these cases, I stick needles directly into the belly of the masseter & temporalis muscles, and then I also do headache & stress relief points. The top of the head, in between the eyebrows, in between the thumb and first finger are all really good starting points. I also do some manual mobilizations in the jaw. What does that look like? Well I literally put my gloved hand inside the mouth and pull downwards to gap the temporomandibular joint to relieve some pressure.