TMJ is Tempromandibular Joint which is the ball and socket joint present in your jaw. Some people experience severe pain in the jaw when they wake up early in the morning. The disorder related to this malfunctioning of jaw is termed as TMJ disorder or TMD which is a chronic disorder and should be treated in time or it will worsen the condition. You can treat this disorder to ease your pain to some extent if you know how to fix TMJ.
The disorder is due to the improper functioning of the TMJ joint in your jaw and the muscles surrounding this joint. Many other organs like neck, teeth, and other facial muscles are also responsible for this disorder. Because of the severe pain in the jaw people suffering from this disorder feel like grinding teeth while sleeping at night, eating a lot of chewing gums, etc but doing this can increase the pain.
Symptoms of TMJ
TMJ is characterized by a number of symptoms in spite of the pain in the jaw, which are as stated below
- A person suffering from TMJ may not be able to open his mouth easily, uncomfortable in chewing and swallowing and suffer from ringing ears, earache, facial swelling, popping of jaw joint.
- One may also experience sever shoulder, neck and back pain. Some may also experience headache.
- Other symptoms include dizziness and problems in vision.
Fixing TMJ
There are a number of ways to fix TMJ which you can try out to reduce the pain such that it does not lead into any major complications.
Massage
- You should take a daily massage to minimize the pain. Using your fingers, massage your temporalis in small circular motions. Continue doing this for at least 10 to 15 seconds.
- Open your mouth and stretch it (where it is not painful). Hold it stretched for 5 to 10 seconds. Repeat this process frequently throughout the day; it will give you relief from pain.
Physical therapy
- Physical therapy proves to be very useful when you experience pain in your shoulders and neck along with the jaw. You can try out these techniques at home which help in stretching and relaxing your jaw and neck muscles.
- Turn your head to one side and tilt it slowly in the opposite side. This helps in stretching your neck muscles.
- Pull you head gently forward, bringing the chin towards chest and then move it backwards slowly. Repeat this back and forth movement of your head for five to six times.
- Place the tip of tongue on the roof of the mouth and stretch your jaw. This is called as N-stretching and you can repeat this process frequently.
- Simply opening and closing your mouth several times will also help.
Heat therapy
- Heat therapy can be used to reduce the inflammation on your jaw and reduce the pain in your jaw. Apply heat to the jaw using a hot water pillow you get in the medical stores. Hold this to your jaw for at least 5 minutes and then apply cold compress for 20 minutes to your jaw.
- You can prepare a cold compress by wrapping an ice-cube in a piece of clean cloth.
- This therapy works faster and should be repeated twice in a day. Heat and ice therapies work best for reducing the joint pains.
Other Treatments
- You can also use anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, aspirin, naprosyn, etc to reduce the inflammation. Consult a doctor before using any of these drugs. Do not use these drugs for a long duration (not more than 2 weeks).
- You can use vapo-coolant sprays available in the market. These sprays provide anesthesia effect to your muscles and help reduce the pain.
- Avoid excess chewing of chewing gums and wide opening of mouth and excess stretching of jaw muscles.
- You can consult a dentist and take proper medical care if any of the above treatments are not proving to be helpful. They will provide you proper treatment.
- In severe cases or if the non-surgical treatment is also not proving to be helpful then surgery of the TMJ is carried out. Surgery is basically carried out if there is a clear joint damage.
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