Home Tips To Help You To Relieve Your TMJ Pain

Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD), depending on its severity, can be debilitating!

TMJ Disorder is a serious and chronic condition that needs to be well-treated by professionals, regardless of how mild or severe the condition is. It can be incredibly difficult to find a healthcare provider who is skilled and experienced in treating TMD.

Dr. Jocelyne Charest, the TMJ/TMD expert at German Dental Clinic, treats the CAUSE/REASON of TMJ and Jaw disorders, using the most advanced technologies and state-of-the-art equipment. Dr. Jocelyne would like to share some home tips that could help patients to relieve their TMJ pain and decrease its Severeness.

Here are the home tips:

1- Don’t sleep on your side with your hand clenched into a fist against your chin or the side of your face. The TMJ is not designed to withstand sideways pressure for a long time.

2- It is important that your pillow supports your neck properly when you sleep. Make sure the pillow you choose isn’t too thick or too thin otherwise, you’ll put too much pressure on your neck, affecting your TMJ. When you are lying down your nose should be aligned with the middle of your chest, then your neck will be aligned too.

3- Don’t sit for long periods of time with your chin resting in your hand with your elbow propped up on something. This habit can be very damaging to the Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) when you consider that it puts pressure upon your jaw, usually one side more than the other in an upwards and backward direction. This is absolutely the worst type of pressure to apply to your jaw due to the unique design of the joint’s anatomy.

4- Don’t clench or brux your teeth during the day. Be aware of it! Keeping space between your teeth while at rest can help you reduce or eliminate daytime clenching and grinding.

5- Whenever possible, avoid raw root vegetables like carrots, apples without slicing them, and French bread crusts or pumpernickel, any bread with a lot of nuts, or popcorn. Be careful not to chew gum or ice, and don’t bite your nails. Also, try to avoid salad during an acute period of pain because when you chew salad, your TMJ does lateral movements which puts a lot of pressure on the TMJ so more pain at the end.

6- Keep in mind that if you’re in a lot of pain and your TMD is acute, smoothies are a wonderful way to incorporate fruits and vegetables without overloading your jaw joints and chewing muscles. Go for a soft diet for a few days.

7- Consuming too much caffeine will cause dehydration of muscles and ligaments, resulting in more pain.  Also, don’t eat too much sugar (simple carbohydrates).  Those empty calories frequently consumed will produce a condition known as reactive glycemia and can be a major contributor to headaches and depression.

8- Do not do strenuous exercises such as jogging or weight lifting; these put too much pressure on the TMJ. It would be better to walk or cycle instead. It’s just a matter of moving more and more so your circulation keeps working and inflammation decreases.

9- Do something enjoyable! Don’t sweat the small stuff and easily allow things to get you angry and frustrated, as you will be more prone to clench your teeth.

10- During the acute period, you can use a wet cold towel first to reduce inflammation for 10-20 minutes, followed by a wet warm towel for 10-20 minutes to stimulate blood circulation and promote healing..

11- If you must take painkillers, use Ibuprofen or Voltaren for 3 days maximum. You can use also a muscle relaxant at bedtime to help the muscle pain but just for 3-5 days only.

12- The most important of all is to try to relax and BREATHE, BREATHE, And BREATHE, but only through your nose. Look up on YouTube the video of Patrick McKeown: Light Breathing exercises.

DON’T FORGET HEALING IS A PROCESS. BE PATIENT!