The temporomandibular joint is one of the most important joints in the body, exercised every day by routine activities like yawning, speaking, chewing, and swallowing. The temporomandibular joint, or TMJ, attaches the jawbone to the skull on both sides of the face, and it serves as a hinge between the upper and lower jaws that allows the mouth to open and also move from side to side. Because people use their jaws so often, sometimes even moving their jaws or clenching their teeth unconsciously, the structures of the jaw are subjected to a significant amount of wear and tear, and, when combined with some underlying conditions or in concert with one another, these forces can cause inflammation in the temporomandibular joint, or TMJ disorder. The symptoms of TMJ disorder are uncomfortable or even painful and can appear as sharp pain in the jaw, dull or throbbing pain in the neck or near the ear, or any kind of pain in between – or a combination of all of these. Sometimes, the pain of TMJ disorder can be severe enough to prevent a person from turning their head, opening their mouth, or even swallowing. If your TMJ pain is ever this bad, seek medical attention right away. If you have mild to moderate TMJ disorder, there’s a good chance you can treat your TMJ disorder with some simple treatments at home.
The first step to curing TMJ disorder is to stop habits like clenching the jaw or grinding the teeth. If you suspect that you might do this while sleeping – for example, if you wake up with a sore jaw that diminishes over the course of the day – ask your dentist for a mouth guard or dental splint for use while you sleep to protect the teeth in the upper and lower jaws from each other. It can also be a problem if you regularly chew gum or habitually chew ice, pens, or other very hard items or foods. In many cases, these non-invasive options cure TMJ disorder and, when maintained, prevent it from reappearing.
To reduce muscle pain and swelling in the short term, apply moist heat, with a hot water bottle or warm compress in a moist cloth, to the outside of the jaw joint area, making sure the compress is not hot enough to burn your face. This will help relax the muscles and relieve tension in the painful area. If you’d prefer to numb the area and reduce TMJ pain that is triggered by arthritis or other conditions that affect the bone or connective tissue, ice packs and cold compresses can be useful, but make sure to wrap your cold compress in cloth to protect your skin, and don’t use hot or cold therapies for more than 15 or 20 minutes at a time.
If you’d like to prevent TMJ disorder from recurring, there are a few different approaches. Some people find permanent relief by doing jaw exercises to strengthen the jaw and supporting muscles. For starters, hold your tongue to the roof of your mouth while opening and closing your mouth slowly. Then, tuck your chin to your chest while keeping your shoulders back and your chest up. Hold this position for about five seconds, and then release and repeat ten times. Ask your dentist or doctor for some other exercises or stretches at your next appointment. Over-the-counter pain medication can provide prompt but temporary relief from pain. When nonsurgical treatments are unsuccessful at curing TMJ disorder, surgery may be called for. The common surgical treatment for TMJ disorder is a minimally invasive outpatient treatment called arthrocentesis. In severe cases, the joint may need to be replaced. Some patients have also found long-term relief from transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, a nerve-stimulation treatment that uses electrical currents to treat pain.