TMJ is no fun and can be caused by a structural issue in your cervical (neck) spine or the TMJ joint itself. Many people don’t know the impact of bad alignment and improper motion inside a joint.
In our office, we find this to be the best non-surgical TMJ treatment and pain relief Columbus Ohio.
TMJ, or the temporomandibular joint, is the joint that connects the jaw to the skull. It is responsible for opening and closing the jaw.
There are several muscles and ligaments, as well as a disc, within the joint that can contribute to dysfunction. When people have TMJ dysfunction, oftentimes they experience symptoms like:
- clicking, popping, or lockjaw
- pain in cheek muscles or pain with chewing
- uncontrolled jaw and/or tongue movements
- clicking/pain when opening or closing the jaw.
TMJ specialist in Columbus Ohio
One of the first things we asses at our TMJ-specialized chiropractic office is the curvature within the neck. A normal healthy neck has a gentle C-shaped curve. This is also referred to as a lordotic curve
When you lose your cervical lordosis or forward curve in your neck, your jaw will be affected. Think of your jaw and skull as a puzzle pieces. With normal neck alignment, your jaw fits into your skull perfectly. But when your neck becomes straight (Text Neck), your jaw then gets pushed outwards and the mechanics of how it opens and closes is abnormal, leading to TMJ.
When the head is forward, this also causes the muscles around the area to respond to the misalignment in the cervical spine/posture.
Therefore, it is common to have tight muscles around the jaw joint, which include the medial and lateral pterygoid muscles, masseter muscles, and temporalis muscles.
All four of these muscles are innervated by the mandibular nerve, which is a branch of the Trigeminal Nerve. This nerve is a cranial nerve that exits the spinal column around the atlas, or the first bone in the neck, under the skull.
TMJ chiropractor near me
As structural corrective chiropractors here at Abundant You Chiropractic we adjust the spine and work on restoring the proper curvature of the neck and normal healthy alignment of the upper cervical region, to alleviate TMJ symptoms.
Correcting structural imbalances or misalignments in your neck are just one way we tackle TMJ pain. The TMJ joint itself can also be manually aligned without surgery or breaking the jaw with a very specific chiropractic adjustment tool.
To learn more about the anatomy of the jaw please read this blog post.
TMJ Treatment and Pain Relief Columbus Ohio
Before coming to Abundant You, I was in Pain Relief Columbus Ohio daily for one reason or another.
I suffered from TMJ Pain Relief Columbus Ohio for years and was told by the dentist that is “just the way my jaw is” and that my options were surgery or just to wear a mouthguard and learn how to minimize the symptoms.
After my first week of Chiropractic care, I went from having daily (sometimes severe) TMJ Pain Relief Columbus Ohio to no symptoms at all.
Now, when I open my mouth, I don’t feel my jaw shift to the right or click, and jaw/ear pain and headaches on that side have stopped completely even in times of stress.
I’m so glad I searched tmj chiropractor near me and found abundant you chiropractic.
Melissa K./ Sales