What does TMJ Physical Therapy Help?
If you are experiencing TMJ pain and looking for some solutions to your problem, you may be wondering if physical therapy can help your TMJ pain. At Purple Mountain Physical Therapy our licensed physical therapists have experience and treatments to help ease TMJ disorders, including to improve your pain, locking, limited opening, trouble chewing, clicking and other issues. Read on to learn more about how physical therapy helps TMJ pain or if you have a specific question about your condition, you can call us at 616-516-4334 to talk with one of our knowledgeable staff members or submit your question here and we will be in touch. We are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan and offer in-person physical therapy for your TMJ problem or remote consults for those who qualify.
Physical Therapy for TMJ Disorders Helps Reduce Neck, Head, Face and Jaw Pain and to Improve Joint Function
If you are looking for pain relief from TMJ pain, then PT is here to help you!
When your jaw hurts you may experience orofacial pain, which is pain located anywhere in the jaw, face, mouth head or neck. Physical therapy helps the muscles, nerves, joints and connective tissue that have restrictions and are causing pain. Just as your low back may experience muscle spasms or sciatica and physical therapy helps this, your TM joint, neck and face can experience similar muscle spasms or pinched nerves causing pain. Our physical therapists specialize in treating TMJ pain, neck pain, low back pain, hip issues and pelvic problems. Because of our focus in these areas, we offer treatment that is comprehensive and designed to alleviate your pain while also improving your jaw function, including opening, closing, resting position, chewing and speaking. For more information about physical therapy helps TMJ pain or if you have a specific question about your condition, you can call us at 616-516-4334 to talk with one of our knowledgeable staff members or submit your question here and we will be in touch.
Our TMJ patients report improved joint range of motion, including ability to open, chew, talk and close.
This is a crucial part of physical therapy. We must improve the mechanics of your joint so you are not straining the disc, joint surfaces and muscles. We used gentle hands-on treatments as well as exercises and heat to help this. One treatment we provide is myofascial release to your neck, thoracic spine, pecs, head, face and jaw muscles. This, along with other gentle manual therapy methods, help you to relieve tension in the jaw joint and improve jaw opening and closing motion. The physical therapy treatment to your neck and posture is an important part of our treatment. We have found that people who have TMJ pain also have upper neck issues that need to be resolved to optimize the TM joint function. If you are interested in learning more about our treatment for TMJ issues (in-person in Grand Rapids, Michigan or via a remote consult if you qualify), call us at 616-516-4334 or submit your questions here and we will be in touch.
Physical Therapy also helps cervicogenic headaches that may be happening with your TMJ problem
Often the patients we treat who have TMJ problems also experience headaches. Sometimes the headaches are coming from neck tension; these headaches are called cervicogenic because your neck (cervical spine) is causing the problem. We find that individuals who have TMJ pain or limited mobility also have problems in their neck, including upper neck stiffness, poor postural alignment, fascia restrictions and muscular guarding. Our physical therapy for TMJ problems always includes treatment to the neck because this is crucial if we truly want to help your jaw. Additionally, we specialize in physical therapy for back pain and pelvic pain, so if you have issues here we will treat these in order to help your jaw get better. Everything is connected and our treatment is whole body care so you can truly feel better. To learn more about our physical therapy for pelvic floor dysfunction, back pain or TMJ problems, offered in-person in Grand Rapids, Michigan or via remote consult for those who qualify, call us at 616-516-4334 or submit your questions here and we will be in touch.
We provide TMJ physical therapy treatment that includes gentle hands-on manual therapy to alleviate connective tissue, muscle, nerve and joint areas of restriction.
Our goal is to get you feeling better. By providing you with gentle hands-on myofascial release, trigger point release, joint mobility care, postural correction, retraining of the face, head and neck muscles and other physical therapy treatments, our patients tell us they feel so much more relaxed in their TMJ and neck. We often find trigger points, muscle stiffness and spasm in the temporalis, masseter, pterygoids, suboccipital muscles, scalenes, upper trapezius and other neck muscles. For more information about how physical therapy helps TMJ issues, call us at 616-516-4334 or submit your questions here and we will be in touch.
We also include exercises for your jaw, face and neck and teach you what to do at home
Based on the results of what we are seeing is happening with your jaw and neck, we customize your exercise routine to ensure we are best helping your jaw pain and range of motion. We find a considerable amount of trigger points and muscular dysfunction in the neck and jaw muscles that contribute to your issues and the right exercises can help alleviate these muscular pains. If you are interested in learning which exercises would help your TMJ pain and problems, call us at 616-516-4334 or submit your questions here and we will be in touch.
After a physical therapy appointment, our patients tell us they feel so much better, less tension, improved ability to open their jaw and generally more relaxed.
If you have questions about whether our physical therapy can help your TMJ problems, call us at 616-516-4334 or submit your questions here and we will be in touch. We offer care in-person in Grand Rapids, Michigan or remote consultations for those who qualify.
When you have chronic jaw pain you may also have something called Central Sensitization. Because we specialize in chronic pelvic, back, neck and TMJ pain, we provide care to address your central sensitization.
Our licensed physical therapists are devoted to helping people overcome pain. Because we specialize in treating chronic pelvic pain, low back pain, neck pain and jaw pain, we have post-graduate training specific to treating central sensitization, myofascial pain and chronic pain conditions. Central sensitization refers to an issue where your brain is readily deciding that everything you do or try to do should cause pain. Research has found that people who have central sensitization continue to have jaw pain after TMJ surgery. In particular, opening their mouth remains uncomfortable, they can’t eat foods that they would like and they report higher pain-related disability. This research has pointed out that treating the central sensitization is an important part of recovering from chronic TMJ pain. Our physical therapists provide treatment to help your central sensitization and improve your quality of life. This includes pain neuroscience education and calming of the nervous system, which augments the traditional physical therapy treatment we provide you and has been found beneficial for overcoming chronic pain conditions. We also may include graded exposure to head, neck and jaw movements to allow your brain to recover control of this area without always giving you a pain signal. If you are interested in receiving physical therapy help for your TMJ problem, call us today to speak with one of our staff members or ask us a question here and we will be in touch.
For more information about how physical therapy helps you to experience pain-free TMJ movement, call us at 616-516-4334 or submit your questions here and we will be in touch.
At Purple Mountain Physical Therapy, we are here to help your TMJ pain, restricted jaw motion and function.
We are Purple Mountain Physical Therapy, a specialty TM joint and pelvic health physical therapy clinic located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Our licensed physical therapists have post-graduate training and experience specific to helping people who have TMJ disorders, jaw pain, muscle tension, headaches and limited ability to open or close the jaw. By using manual therapy, corrective exercise, treatment to your neck, face, head and jaw, we hope to help you to feel better and correct your jaw movement, posture, muscle guarding and function. If you are interested in physical therapy treatment for your TMJ problem, either in-person in Grand Rapids, Michigan or a remote consult if you qualify, are here to help. You can call 616-516-4334 to speak with one of our knowledgeable staff members or submit your questions here and we will be in touch!
Author| Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT physical therapist specializing in TMJ disorders, neck pain, back pain and pelvic health. Founder of Purple Mountain Physical Therapy. We treat adults and children who experience TMJ pain, cervicogenic headaches and neck problems.
Click on any of these articles that may be of interest and provide more information for you:
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Physical Therapy for Neck Pain and Headaches
What Can Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Help With?
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