TMJ Exercises for Jaw Pain, Teeth Grinding, Clicking & Locking

How To Release Jaw Tension, Headaches, and TMJ pain

TMJ problems and tight jaw muscles often go hand in hand, so whether you get pain in your Temporomandibular Joint pain, OR headaches on the side from clenching, OR grinding your teeth… do all of these exercises as a complete set.

For each exercise make sure you’re in a tall neck posture, with your chin slightly tucked in. Don’t do anything that hurts and take it easy (just do about half) the first time you do these.

 

Exercise 1. Masseter Muscle Massage.

Start off by massaging your masseter muscle–the main muscle that closes your jaw. You can find it easily by clenching your teeth for a second and feeling the muscle that bulges out at the angle of the jaw. Relax your jaw, then start rubbing in circles with either your thumbs… or fingers.

You never want to push your jaw firmly to one side, so just do both sides at once. Work from your cheek bone right down to the angle of your jaw. Concentrate on the tender points. The worst part is usually the front-centre part of the masseter muscle.

Open your mouth right up to get to the upper attachment of the masseter on coronoid process of the jaw bone.

Then finish off with some cross-friction massage underneath the cheek bone where the masseter muscle inserts. (Total time for exercise = 2 minutes).

 

Exercise 2. Temporalis muscle massage.

Next do the same with the temporalis muscle… massaging in circles or vertically, with the jaw relaxed. This is a very shallow muscle, so if you feel like you’re just rubbing bone, don’t worry. Just cover this whole area. You can end with some cross friction above the cheek bone this time. (Total time for exercise = 1 minute).

 

Exercise 3. Suboccipital Muscle Massage

When the jaw-clenching muscles are tight, the suboccipital muscles at the top of the neck tend to tighten up too, so next rub across all the muscle attachments at the base of the skull in a band that extends from the top of your ears to the bottom of your ears. (Total time for exercise = 30 seconds).

 

Exercise 4. Isometric Exercises.

Now we want to gently stretch the TMJ and get a bit of blood flowing through some other muscles like the pterygoid muscles. The best way to do that is isometric contractions. With your teeth one finger width apart, support your jaw bone firmly with both hands and try to push your jaw to one side. Resist with your hands so that the jaw doesn’t move. Push with moderate pressure, not hard, and hold for 5 seconds, then do it that other way.

Next do the same but as if you are trying to push your jaw forward… push your jaw back… and open your mouth. Repeat each direction twice.

 

Exercise 5. Reciprocal inhibition.

We finish off by tricking the muscles that clench the jaw into relaxing.  By contracting the muscles that open the jaw, we make the muscles that clench the jaw to relax:

With your thumbs under your jaw, open the jaw against resistance slowly over 5 seconds, then close it slowly over another 5 seconds, creating resistance the whole time with your thumb pressure. Do this three times.

To finish up, touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then open your mouth as wide as you can comfortably for 5 seconds, 3 times.

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These exercises can give you some instant relief, but if you have a chronic problem, I recommend doing them regularly. The pain and tension in your jaw will get less every day.

 

RESTRICTED OR CLICKING JAW EXERCISE

Now for the people that get painful clicking in their TMJ, their jaw is restricted, or is painful to open or chew, there’s a separate exercise you can do. There’s a disc in the jaw and when you open your mouth more than about 2 cm, it normally slides forward with the jawbone to allow full opening–which is about 4 to 5 cm.

Sometimes the disc can get stuck in that forward position, so the jaw can click as it slides past it. If it just clicks and doesn’t cause pain I’d leave it as it is, but if it’s a painful click, you can’t open your mouth fully, or it causes pain to try to open it, chew, or talk… you can do this exercise:

• Start off by warming-up the TMJ by opening and closing the mouth three times slowly… in the pain free range of motion
• Then put three fingers on your bottom teeth and gently draw the jaw bone down… BUT only until the TMJ pain just starts. Then hold the jaw open in this position for 30 seconds.
• Then slowly close the jaw and rest with your mouth closed for 5 seconds, without letting the teeth touch.
• Repeat this 3 times in the pain free range of motion and do these sets 4 times a day. This is not a quick fix so expect to do this over several weeks.

 

TEST THE PROGRESSION OF YOUR TMJ RESTRICTION

A good test for progression is the 3 finger test.

You should be able to open your mouth wide enough to put 3 fingers sideways between your teeth. If you can’t open your mouth that wide, this should improve over time with these exercises… so you can use this test to monitor your progress.

 

NIGHT BRUXISM MOUTH GUARDS

Nocturnal bruxism, or night teeth clenching and grinding, can damage your TMJ and cause headaches, but it can also damage your teeth and cause receding gums. So, if you’re a clencher or grinder, I recommend getting a proper night mouth guard to protect your teeth.

Some people use the sports mouthguards you can heat up and meld to you’re the shape of your teeth, but this softer style of mouthguard encourages chewing and grinding, so try to get a proper hard one from your dentist. And while you’re there, get your teeth checked for poor bite alignment.

 

Here’s a list of other things you can do to minimise jaw tension and grinding:

• Don’t chew on non-food items (Chewing gum, pens etc)
• Try to increase your awareness of daytime jaw tension.
• Put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth during activities that normally make you clench
• Reduce caffeine
• Turn off phones and computers an hour before bed
• Meditate or do these exercises before bed.

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