Chiropractic Jaw Adjustment
By Sara Butler
Plenty of people are aware that chiropractors adjust spines, but what about other parts of your body such as your jaw? They can adjust those too! Your jaw is a moving, working joint and because of that it can become misaligned, causing you pain that requires an adjustment to fix. Here’s how your chiropractor can help you out if you’re suffering from jaw pain!
Get to Know Your Jaw
Your jaw is just as complex as any other joint in your body. It has a joint on each side called the temporal-mandibular joint. That joint is cushioned by a disc just as the joints in your spine are. The joint or the disc can cause problems for you if suffer from:
- Stress
- Teeth grinding
- Trauma
- Poor posture of the head
- Lengthy dental work
The disc tissue can become entrapped either in front of or behind the hinge of the joint in your jaw. This can cause a catching feeling or a clicking that you can hear when you open and close your mouth.
Do You Need a Jaw Adjustment?
Some people have an issue with their jaw known as Temporal Mandibular Dysfunction (TMD), which falls under the umbrella of a diagnosis called Temporal Mandibular Syndrome (TMS). In order to be diagnosed with TMS you need to have at least three of the following symptoms, less than three is a diagnosis of TMD for which treatment is similar. The symptoms are:
- Pain in the jaw
- Grinding sound in the jaw
- Teeth grinding, especially at night
- Inability to open mouth all the way
- Inability to close mouth completely
- Neck pain
- Headaches
- Ringing in the ears
- Jaw veers to one side when you open or close it
- Chronic neck misalignments
- Muscle weakness in the jaw
- Eye movement problems
The Treatment
Depending on your specific issue and which direction the disc in the jaw may have slipped, a specific adjustment can be performed by your chiropractor to restore normal function. They may also suggest massage, wearing a guard in your mouth at night if you grind your teeth, neck adjustments, and heat/cold therapy for pain and inflammation. The goal of treatment is going to be to realign your jaw, and it will probably make you feel better all over since it will be reducing the tension in the joint and releasing the muscles around it too!
If you think you may be suffering from a dysfunction of your jaw joint, then you should see a chiropractor at The Joint today!
