It can put a serious damper on your daily life. As the second most common musculoskeletal condition in younger adults after chronic low back pain, this disorder affects quality of sleep, your ability to eat, and even cognition.

Oftentimes, TMD is caused by some sort of trauma, like a car accident or a blow to the face. Sometimes the cause is chronic teeth grinding or event stress. Our poor posture can definitely exacerbate the disorder further. Forward head posture while sitting or standing, extended computer and cell phone use, even bad pillows can make the pain worse.

If you think you may be suffering from TMD, the first step is to speak with a physical therapist or dentist for a comprehensive evaluation. There are a lot of factors that can affect your TMJ:

posture of the jaw, tongue, and neck
jaw range of motion
mobility of the neck and upper back
tenderness of the muscles or joints
clicking or popping sounds when you move your jaw

Physical therapy can be one of the most effective ways to treat TMD because it can target almost all of the potential underlying causes, such as joint mobility restrictions, muscle length deficits, and neuromuscular coordination dysfunction.

If you’re looking to learn about possible treatment options, over the last few months we’ve been hosting “Lunch & Learns” which are a great opportunity for members of our community to come together to learn about different health topics such as TMD. This month, we’ll be hosting another one of these events at our clinic on
Thursday, February 22nd over the noon hour. Come eat a free lunch with our staff and learn more about how your jaw dysfunction could be creating problems all over your upper body.

Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) is a condition that causes pain in the jaw and/or the muscles that control jaw movement. While it’s more than twice as likely to impact women, TMD affects millions of people of varying age and gender.

Symptoms can often include:

  • jaw popping or “cracking”
  • earache
  • ear ringing
  • headache
  • dizziness
  • difficulty swallowing
  • brain fog

Not Just Jaw Pain

Because of how the joint is situated, the muscles of the neck, head and face affect it. The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is unique because it moves both up and down, as well as side to side. This makes the joint inherently unstable, leading to the muscles and ligaments surrounding the joint to get overworked and inflamed.

P: 308-872-5800 F: 308-872-5803 

2021 South E St., Suite #1 Broken Bow, NE 68822

Take the “bite” out of jaw pain