What is TMJD and how can massage help?
I often have a lot of clients experiencing neck and TMJ pain/stiffness. For a lot of people that pain is just something they have been putting up with and have not realized there can be relief and healing. Here is some wonderful information from a great peer-reviewed article published at Healthline.com titled "How to Relieve TMJD Symptoms with TMJ Massage."
The occasional headache or pain in the neck may seem like a typical part of everyday life. Then one day during lunch maybe you notice a clicking sound whenever you chew or you can’t seem to open your mouth as wide. These are tell-tale signs of TMJ dysfunction (TMJD). The TMJ (temporomandibular joint) is what connects the mandible (lower jaw) to the skull, just under the ears. The muscles of the TMJ control chewing. Dysfunction or malalignment can affect the neck, shoulders, face, and teeth.
According to one study, TMJD affects 20 to 40% of the adult population. But studies have found massage to be extremely helpful in managing TMJ pain and TMJD symptoms.
Registered massage therapist Hannah Etlin-Stein MSc, RMT in Toronto, Canada has treated many clients diagnosed with TMJD within her practice. She incorporates TMJ work into treatment plans along with teaching her clients self-massage and breathing techniques to continue on their own.
Read on to learn more about TMJ massage and self-massage techniques to help manage symptoms.
Signs you may have TMJ dysfunction
- muscular pain when chewing, swallowing, or speaking
- restricted movement, such as limitations when opening the mouth
- clicking, popping, and cracking of the jaw
- dental issues such as misaligned teeth
- pain in the neck, scalp, and shoulders
- frequent headaches
- pain and tenderness at the joint
- pain, ringing, or itchiness in the ears
- dizziness
Does massage help relieve TMJD?
Research from 2021 concludes that conservative manual techniques of physical therapy, including massage, are highly beneficial in relieving TMJD management. There were significant improvements in pain relief and maximal mouth opening. Etlin-Stein adds “because our jaws do not exist in a vacuum, it is essential to address other areas in the body as well, that could be contributing to TMJ dysfunction. This includes work on the spine, scalp, shoulders, and pelvis to name a few.” This is why massaging trigger points can bring relief. Trigger points are tender or sore spots that when pressed, send a sensation elsewhere on the body. Sensations can include pain, tingling, twitching, or itching.
What are the trigger points for TMJD?
The masseter muscle — a muscle of the jaw located above and below the cheekbone — can have trigger points related to TMJD. Massaging the masseter trigger points can relieve headaches, ear aches, and toothaches. Some muscles of the neck, such as the suboccipital muscle group (under the back of the skull) and the sternocleidomastoid (those two thick bands of muscles on the front of the neck) may hold TMJ trigger points. The temporal muscles at the sides of your face, just in front of the ears (think of your temples, where you’d naturally massage if you had a headache) can hold trigger points.
Massaging the upper trapezius, a large band of muscles spanning the neck, upper back, and shoulders can also relieve pressure on the TMJ.
How to do a self-massage for TMJ
Self-massage can be done using your own hands or specially designed tools. Three types of massage techniques you may use for TMJ are kneading, friction, and stretching.
Kneading (think of kneading dough) is lifting, rolling, and wringing out a muscle between your fingers. Friction massage is generally used to increase circulation to an area and is usually performed with the pads of the fingers or thumbs. It’s using gentle to moderate pressure as you rub back and forth over an area, usually perpendicular to the muscle fibers. The stretching, or spreading, technique is a means of elongating a muscle by spreading it out and moving the skin with your fingers, knuckles, or palms.
Check out this Posture Massage video where Julie shows you how to release your jaw! With the techniques that we share, you can easily release your jaw and the muscles around your mouth to help with all sorts of head and mouth pain. Techniques essentially involve running your finger over your jaw by your cheekbone from your nose to your ear, and then the bottom jaw. You can also follow the teeth back to the joint and apply a little pressure there. You can grab the cheek in many ways, and hold while you open and close your mouth. You don't need to have lots of pressure when working with the muscles in your face. Just relax your hand and fingers and say 'hello' to the tissues. If you want to try and experiment, you can tense up your hand and run your finger along the tissue and then relax it and then feel the difference between how the tissue reacts. "Soft tools equal soft muscles." This was told to me on repeat in massage school and it is so true, so give it a try!
Where can you get a TMJ massage?
Posture Massage with Julie of course! She can help you release the tension in your head and jaw in particular, making things feel better than they have in years! Try it out!
