Marian Bozarth

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So your jaw is popping when you chew, or when you talk. It might be really painful, or perhaps it is not yet painful, but you are concerned about it. Maybe you already had surgery and yet the problem persists. OUCH! Well, here is a list of things that can be causing your problem. The good news is that these are things that can be fixed!

The jaw is connected to a bone in your head called the temporal bone. That connection is called the temporo-mandibular joint. Pain there is called temporo-mandibular joint syndrome, or TMJ syndrome for short. Because the temporal bone is the foundation for the lower jaw, it is important that it is balanced. Both the Osteopathic and Chiropractic professions study, among other things, the motion of the bones in the skull, which respond normally to the pulse of the brain and spinal cord. If the temporal bone has been shoved out of place (remember when you “caught” that ball with the side of your head?), and if they have not moved back into position by themselves, the foundation for the jaw will be wrong. It is like when your house settles after 40 years of family events, and the door frame moves into a position other than square. The door sticks and there are gaps around the edge.

Muscles that move the jaw receive signals from nerves. There are the big masseter muscles that pulsate when you chew. But there are also tiny muscles under the jaw and even behind the eyes that manage the sideways motions of the jaw. Therefore, if the signals from the brain are coming out wrong along those nerves, some of those muscles will be tighter than they should be. The effect is like trying to tie a bicycle on the roof of the car – you have to be sure there is even pressure on all sides or else the bike gets off-center. And your jaw can get off-center just because the muscles are not pulling evenly.

The collarbone is connected to the sterno-cleido-mastoid muscle, which is connected to the mastoid portion of the temporal bone. Therefore, if the collarbone is displaced from some kind of trauma, like a car accident in which the seat belt slams against your chest or a hard fall on the shoulder, another disturbance in the foundation of the jaw can occur.

We are assuming that you have relatively normal stress in your life. If you are accustomed to gritting your teeth to endure uncomfortable situation, well, that can cause TMJ syndrome all by itself. Learn a new way to respond to your triggers!

Dentists are especially good with one cause of TMJ syndrome. As you can anticipate, yes, it is the teeth being of varying sizes and position that can cause the problem.

So what are the solutions?

First, check with the dentist to make sure the teeth are good. If you had some trauma of the head, neck or shoulder, it is not likely to have altered the alignment of the teeth. Instead, check in with your local Doctor of Chiropractic. The Chiropractor is trained to understand how the bones line up. The cranial Osteopath and some Chiropractors also have specialized training in understanding how to correct misaligned bones of the skull, such as the temporal bone.

Learning new ways to respond to the triggers around us can take some time! F. M. Alexander spent ten years working out the tension problems in his voice. Along the way, he developed what we call the Alexander technique, giving us a practical way to resolve tension habits. An Alexander teacher can save you a lot of time and help with more than just tension. The scientist, Nikko Tinbergen, noticed that his high blood pressure came down with Alexander lessons.

But the one specialist that can correct most of the causes of TMJ syndrome is the upper cervical chiropractor. Using detailed x-ray analysis of the neck and head region, the upper cervical doctor can identify and correct misalignments as small as one-half millimeter that prevent the skull and neck bones from moving back into their proper motion patterns.

Temporo-mandibular joint syndrome is very common, but it is not the end of the story. Practical and conservative resources are available that help solve a complex problem.

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