TMJ And Jaw Pain, Arlington Texas
Jaw Pain: What Treatment Offers, And Where A Dentist Leads
The short answer
The jaw joint sits directly in front of the ear and gets loaded every time you chew, talk or clench. Jaw pain often travels with the neck and the upper back, because head position changes the way the jaw closes. Hands-on treatment of the jaw muscles and the neck is a reasonable thing to try. The systematic review evidence for it is genuinely weak, and that gets said here rather than dressed up. Where the cause is the bite, the teeth or grinding at night, a dentist has to lead and the two pieces of care work better side by side than instead of each other.
What Is Actually Happening
A Small Joint Doing An Enormous Number Of Repetitions
You load the jaw joint every time you eat, speak or clench. Almost nothing else in the body works that often.
The temporomandibular joint is a hinge that also slides. Open your mouth slowly with a fingertip just in front of each ear and you can feel it rotate first and then translate forward. Between the two surfaces sits a small disc that has to travel with the movement. When the muscles working the joint are overloaded, or when the disc stops tracking cleanly, you get the familiar collection: aching in front of the ear, pain with chewing, clicking, sometimes a jaw that will not open as far on one side.
The neck belongs in the same conversation. Where the head sits changes the resting position of the jaw and the length the muscles work at, which is why jaw pain and neck stiffness so often arrive together. Examining one and ignoring the other misses half of it.
- How far the jaw opens, and whether it deviates to one side on the way
- Whether clicking is painful, or simply present
- The chewing muscles and the muscles under the jaw, tested rather than pressed
- Upper neck movement and the muscles at the base of the skull
- Clenching and grinding, daytime habits, and what your dentist has already seen
What The Research Says
Promising, On Weak Evidence, And That Is The Whole Truth
Physical Therapy, 2016 (Armijo-Olivo and colleagues), manual therapy and therapeutic exercise for temporomandibular disorders: forty-eight randomised trials were analysed. The authors rated the overall body of evidence as low, with most trials at unclear or high risk of bias, and concluded that there is great uncertainty about the effectiveness of exercise and manual therapy for these disorders. Within that, manual therapy alone or combined with exercise at the jaw or at the neck showed promising effects, with effect sizes described as low to moderate.
What this means in plain terms: a lot of people get better with this and the research is not strong enough to promise you will. It is a reasonable thing to try, it is cheap in risk, and it should show something within a few weeks. If it does not, that is information and the plan changes.
Note where the review found the promise: at the jaw or at the cervical level. Treating the neck for a jaw complaint is not a stretch, it is one of the two places the evidence points.
Who Leads
A Bite Problem Is A Dentist's Problem
If the cause is your teeth, no amount of work on the muscles will hold the change.
A jaw that hurts because of how the teeth meet, a night guard that needs making or adjusting, a cracked tooth, or grinding severe enough to be wearing the enamel down, all belong with a dentist. So does anything that started after dental work. This clinic does not manage any of that and does not pretend to. What can be treated here is the muscular and joint side of it, and the neck above it, alongside whatever your dentist is doing.
Dr. Monet is certified in applied kinesiology, and manual muscle testing is used here as part of an examination rather than as a test on its own. On a jaw it is a practical way to compare how the muscles on each side hold up under load, which is hard to judge by pressing on them. Nothing here is a promise of a particular result, and if the examination says this is not a mechanical problem you will be told so.
Read This First
Jaw Symptoms That Need Urgent Care
If You Notice Any of These Warning Signs, Please Seek Emergency Room Care Right Away.
- A jaw locked open, or locked shut and unable to open
- Sudden swelling, redness or heat around the joint, especially with a fever
- Jaw pain after a blow to the face, a fall or a collision, or a suspected fracture
- Facial numbness, weakness on one side of the face, or a deficit that is getting worse
- New jaw or facial pain with a history of cancer, or with unexplained weight loss
- Jaw or facial pain with chest tightness, breathlessness or sweating, which needs emergency care immediately
There is no imaging in this building. If your examination points at something needing a scan or a dental opinion, you get referred rather than treated anyway. Call 817-800-7136 and describe it.
Common Questions
Jaw Pain, Asked And Answered
My jaw clicks. Does that need treating?
A painless click on its own is common and often needs nothing. Clicking that comes with pain, with limited opening, or with the jaw catching, is worth examining. The click itself is not the target; how the joint moves and how the muscles are coping is.
Should I see a dentist or come here?
If the trigger is the teeth, the bite, dental work or heavy night grinding, start with your dentist. If it is aching in front of the ear, pain with chewing, and a stiff neck alongside it, this is a reasonable place to start. Plenty of people need both, and the two work better side by side.
Does the neck really affect the jaw?
Head position changes the resting position of the jaw and the length its muscles work at. The 2016 review found the promising effects at the jaw or at the cervical level, so treating the neck for a jaw complaint is one of the two places the evidence actually points.
How strong is the evidence?
Weaker than anyone would like. The 2016 review of forty-eight trials rated the overall evidence low and described great uncertainty, while finding manual therapy promising within that. It is worth trying, it should show something in a few weeks, and it is not something to keep paying for indefinitely.
Will I need a scan?
Usually not. There is no imaging in this building, so anything that calls for an X ray or an MRI means a referral. Most jaw complaints are assessed by examination and by history.
Do you take insurance for this?
Insurance and paying directly both work. Call 817-800-7136 and ask before you book, and you will be told how it works in your case. Appointments only, so a visit has to be booked.
Sources
Where The Numbers On This Page Come From
- Effectiveness of Manual Therapy and Therapeutic Exercise for Temporomandibular Disorders: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Armijo-Olivo S, Pitance L, Singh V, Neto F, Thie N, Michelotti A. Physical Therapy 2016;96(1):9 to 25. Forty-eight randomised trials. Source of the low overall evidence rating, the great uncertainty in the conclusion, and the promising effects found for manual therapy alone or with exercise at the jaw or cervical level.
Get The Jaw And The Neck Looked At Together
Call and describe when it hurts and what you were doing, or book online and pick a time.
3825 W Green Oaks Blvd, Suite 710, Arlington, TX 76016. Appointments only.