Does your jaw click?

Have you ever felt a big “clunk” as you’ve opened your mouth?

Or hear jaw clicking away while you chew?

Maybe you always wake up with a cracking headache. You might feel like your ear is blocked, or you can hear ringing in your ears.

Have you ever felt like you’ve got a toothache, but your dentist tells you your teeth are fine?

These are all signs of jaw pain and suboptimal function that osteopaths may be able to help with!

Up to 20% of the population battles with jaw pain at one time or another in their life. It affects women more than men, and usually presents with a wide array of symptoms from a wide array of causes.

The latest research suggests that manual therapy, together with home exercises and posture advice is the best way to manage TMJ pain. The best news is that the osteopaths at Boroondara Osteopathy can do all three!

The jaw is made up of the temporal bone at the top and the mandible at the bottom, with a disc of thick fibrous tissue between the two. The jaw joint is pretty complex – it works like a hinge as well as a ball-and-socket joint at the same time. It’s a super strong joint – just think of how hard you have to bite down on food sometimes!

Jaw pain can happen when any of the structures around the joint become inflamed or don’t perform as they’re meant to. The most common causes are:

• trigger points in the muscles inside the mouth. These are tight bands of muscle overexcite your nervous system and cause pain around your jaw. They also tend to refer pain and cause headaches. This can be a result of chronic jaw clenching.
• The fibrous disc moves to where it doesn’t belong – we call this disc displacement. This is often the cause of the infamous jaw clicking you might have. This is usually due to lax ligaments and muscle imbalances. Interestingly, up to 35% of people can have disc displacement and not have any pain or dysfunction!

One of our best techniques targets the trigger points in the muscles inside the mouth. Direct pressure and massage for these muscles releases the tension around the jaw joint. In our experience, this technique gives our patients great relief from their pain.