If you've been researching TMJ and how to treat it, for some time, you've probably found one overall statement from every reliable source: There is no real cure for TMJ.
Your doctor is probably doing his best to relief your pain. He has most likely subscribed you strong pain relief pills. Maybe some muscle relaxation medications too. But that's it. No more he can do.
All these medicines fail. Even if they reduce the pain a little for a while in the beginning, they'll stop working, little by little, as your body gets immune to them.
Some dentist specialize in TMJ. They put a dental implant in your mouth. It may well be worth getting these implants. They may save you from grinding your teeth at night. But most likely, they won't relief your pain.
So why has science failed you?
It's not really their fault. This is a very complicated this condition. There is probably no one cause for all TMJ. Most likely, it's more like a combination of many factors. What makes this even more complicated is, the factors are most likely both emotional and physical.
Overwhelming feelings like stress, grief, or intense anger are often basic triggers of TMJ. Injuries, like car accidents or sport injuries are another common triggers. You may not even have noticed at all when your condition began to develop. Maybe you bumped into something but didn't give it a second thought. Few days later you began to experience pain. Most often, there is no way to know the original trigger. Okay, that's enough. Lets talk about what we DO KNOW!
We know for a fact, the jaw joints are always misplaced to some degree. Tiny misplacement can be enough to cause terrible pain. Some patients think the irritation is even worse than the pain. Here are some obvious symptoms...
Clicking, popping jaw joints Grating sounds. Jaw locking opened or closed. Extreme pain in cheek muscles. Uncontrollable jaw or tongue movements. Clenching or grinding at night. Discomfort or pain to any of these areas. Limited opening. Inability to open the jaw smoothly or evenly. Jaw deviates to one side when opening. Inability to "find bite" with teeth. Frequent, migraine type headaches.
...are just few obvious symptoms. You may have some or all of them. Or non at all. Like I said, this is very complicated condition.
Here is another fact we know: The jaw muscles are always very stiff. They're sometimes, not always, soar, or torn. But they're always stiff. The pressure from your tense jaw muscles pushes your jaw further out of position. It supports its misplacement. This makes your problem way worse than it has to be.
This is similar to back problems. Most people who suffer from back problems have weak, tense muscles. The back problem may have started by using bad position when working, by minor injury, or something else that didn't seem very serious at the time.
But then, the back muscles get going. They get even more tense to deal with the small problem. Then you won't have to feel the back pain for a while. This tension in the back muscles pushes the spine out of place. Just a little bit but that's enough. What could have been only minor problem if the person had exercised the back muscles a little, has now become a chronic problem.
I'm telling you this because TMJ develops the same way. Your TMJ may have began as minor problem like short period of intense feelings or light bump on the jaw. Then as your jaw muscles get more tens and push the jaw out of position, it has developed into a major condition. This is the beginning of series of other problems.
The misplaced jaw causes unbalance between the left and the right jaw joints. It's like driving a car having one wheel turn left and the other right. You can imagine the strain this puts on the wheels and the steering. Well, you know the strain it puts on You.
Nerves get squeezed. Either directly by the misplaced jaw or the tense muscles around it. The same nerves lie around the jaw as the ears. The same nerves that control the balance system. That's why you may experience dizziness or lack or balance for example?
All the muscles in your body are connected. If one gets tense, all the muscles around that one become tense too. You've probably, for example, felt your shoulders and neck get stiffer as your TMJ grows worse.
You may not have noticed how all the small muscles in your head (including the throat muscles, tongue, and eyes) have more tension in them now than they did before. This is serious.
You don't have to imagine all the secondary symptoms this indirect tension from the jaw is creating. You're experiencing some or all of them yourself... balance problems, "vertigo", dizziness, or disequilibrium voice fluctuations hissing, buzzing, ringing, or roaring sounds blurring of vision clogged, stuffy, "itchy" ears, feeling of fullness tongue pain frequent coughing or constant clearing of throat arm and finger tingling, numbness and or pain bloodshot eyes.
...plus hundreds of other secondary symptoms!
There is no way to heal your TMJ, unless you loosen up and strengthen all the muscles connected to the jaw and the jaw muscles. This does actually not require hard effort tough. The exercises are simple and easy to do. But you have to practice them if they're are going to work for you.
1) The jaw exercises strengthen and loosen up the jaw muscles directly. As you practice these exercises, the jaw muscles stops pushing the jaw into wrong position. Instead, it guides the jaw joints into right place and that way heals your TMJ.
2) The tongue is a strong muscle. Many people have lot of tension in this muscle for some reason. It's very important to relies the tension in the tongue, using simple tongue exercises. Remember all muscles are connected. Tension in tongue means tension in jaw and vs.
3) You probably noticed how many of the secondary symptoms had something to do with the throat. You'll feel a whole lot better after you practise the throat exercises for few days.
4) There is almost no separation between the neck and shoulders and jaw muscles. If one is stiff, the others tense up immediately. That makes the neck and shoulder exercises as important as the direct jaw exercises.
5) All muscles need oxygen to function properly. Stiff muscles, reduce the amount of oxygen they can process. Using specially designed breathing exercises, you can bring these muscles back to life, so they may begin to function properly again.
Most people who practice these exercises claim to get really good relief from them. Many totally heal their TMJ permanently. This is amazing, considering how complicated this condition is.
I'm going to be totally honest with you.
This will most likely take some time and effort. The exercises take less than 10 minutes a day on the average. But you must commit to them for some period of time. Some people literally get healed over night but that's not the norm. Your TMJ has been developing for years (even if the symptoms just showed up). So give the training few weeks. Even couple of months.
The exercises rebuild your jaw function little by little. The the muscles around the jaw must first regain their old strength and flexibility. Then the jaw muscle will guide your jaw joints into their natural healthy position. This usually happens slowly and gradually.
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