What Is TMD?:
Temporomandibular Dysfunction is a collection of symptoms that involve the mouth, jaw and supporting structures. While not typically associated with physical therapy, these symptoms can affect eating, talking, yawning and singing which can make a large impact in daily life! TMD can often send referral patterns, or different areas of pain, all throughout the head, neck and face and sometimes cause headaches.
Below are some important things to consider when faced with symptoms surrounding jaw dysfunction.
Team Approach:
It is incredibly important to have a team approach with all healthcare providers associated with TMD.
What does this mean?
While your dentist is usually the first point of contact here, it is integral to have communication between your physical therapist and possibly orthodontist if there is one involved so that everyone is making informed decisions regarding treatment.
Physical Therapy For TMD:
You can have physical therapy for your jaw? Absolutely! The jaw is closely influenced by the position of our neck. Doing posture retraining and stability exercises for the neck can improve TMD symptoms. There are also a significant amount of muscles that are responsible for coordinating movement for chewing and talking, and like any other muscles those can get tight or be weak. We can guide our patients through movement retraining, stretching and mobilization of the muscles and joint itself and then resistance exercises.
What To Do If You Have Jaw Pain:
- If you are already in physical therapy, mention this to your PT! They may be able to make some suggestions on home exercises to start with.
- Schedule an appointment with your dentist.
