If you&;ve got headaches, neck pain or ringing in the ears that won&;t seem to go away even with treatment? Did you know your jaw could be the cause?.Digastrics. .Today we&;ll be going for the posterior belly of the digastric in 3 steps1. Gently perform some circular massage in the area under your ear and the angle of your mandible2. Put your finger behind the angle of the mandible and press forward toward the opening of the mouth or your eye3. Do this gently on both sides at once4. Take it slow and open your mouth or take deep breaths in and out5. Repeat 8-10xDisclaimer: this is a sensitive area so be gentle! series

posted on April 21, 2017 by | No comments

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If you&;ve got headaches, tooth ache or neck pain that won&;t seem to go away even with treatment? Did you know your jaw could be the cause?.The Digastrics. .The Digastric muscles – by definition this double bellied muscle is a small muscle underneath the jaw – There are two bellies of the digastric: Posterior belly – attaches to the lower part of the skullAnterior belly – inner side of the mandible and the hyoid bone – a cartilaginous structure in your neckThis muscle helps you with swallowing and depressing the jaw. In patients with TMD, often the posterior belly of this muscle is tight.To muscle test it:.Put your fingers in the corner of your jaw and press forward and toward your eyes.If you swallow and feel this muscle pop – you&;re on the right spot.If you don&;t quite feel this one – don&;t worry. It&;s a smaller muscle which blends with a number of muscles into the front of the neck and is quite a tender point! Some practitioners themselves find difficulty muscle testing this on their patients. I just wanted to show you as much as I could for self treatment – This is number 3 of 4 so only one more!. Next up is the self release for it. series

posted on April 20, 2017 by | No comments

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If you&;ve got ringing in the ears (tinnitus), headaches or neck pain that won&;t seem to go away even with treatment? Did you know your jaw could be the cause?——————–Now that you understand some of the basic movements of the jaw – we&;ll go into a little more detail about how the TMJ functions as a whole. The two smooth movements the TMJ have are:Rotation TranslationHere you will see how it works in motion – Jaw opening – During the first bit of jaw opening there is just pure rotation, and then as the jaw opens wider, the articular disc moves and there is a translation component. This video here demonstrates normal TMJ function. .Do you have a click? .If everything is moving well – you will have a smooth motion. If not, you may have a bit of a click or a pop and this is the articular disc getting displaced or pinned during this TRANSLATION phase of movement and then suddenly popping or snapping into place. Note that this processed is reversed on jaw closing and allows another opportunity for displacement or dysfunction to arise with the disc. . series

posted on April 17, 2017 by | No comments

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Ok. Back to basics. ——————–Now that you&;ve seen some of the self assessment of the jaw, we should understand the basic movements of the jaw. When both of your temporomandibular joints move in concert, you have the following 4 movements/terminologies:.Protrusion – jaw moves forwardRetraction – jaw pulls backwardElevation – jaw risesDepression – jaw drops .The above image shows you some of the muscles involved with each movement of the jaw..When the muscles of the TMJ are active on only one side you have the movement of Lateral deviation..Next up a video showing you the 2 main movements at the TMJ itself. Rotation and translation or spin and glide! . series

posted on April 13, 2017 by | No comments

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If you&;ve got headaches or neck pain that won&;t seem to go away even with treatment? Did you know your jaw could be the cause?.Temporalis.The Temporalis is second muscle of mastication – or chewing. This muscle is responsible for closing the jaw so to help it release it we&;re going to slowly open. Simple as pie. Try it yourself on both sides. To start:.Clench your teeth with your hands on the side of your head you&;ll feel the muscle pop outGently perform some circular massagePin under your hand and stretch by opening your mouth slowly(not to max) Hold at end of opening for a brief pauseRinse and repeat 8-10x. series

posted on April 12, 2017 by | No comments

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If you&;ve got headaches or neck pain that won&;t seem to go away even with treatment? Did you know your jaw could be the cause?.Temporalis. .The Temporalis is another muscle of mastication – or chewing. This muscle is responsible for assisting in closing the jaw along with the masseter. If you grind your teeth at night (bruxism) this muscle and the masseter will definitely have a fun triggerpoint or knots in them. To muscle test it:.Put your fingers in front of your ear and up on your hair and you&;ll feel the muscle pop out when you clench your teethIf you have pain directly under your hand or find any harder points it&;s your Temporalis. . Next up is the self release for it. series

posted on April 12, 2017 by | No comments

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If you&;ve got headaches or neck pain that won&;t seem to go away even with treatment? Did you know your jaw could be the cause?.Massseeetterrrr. .The Masseter is one of the muscles of mastication – or chewing. This muscle is responsible for closing the jaw so to help it release it we&;re going to slowly open. Simple as pie. Try it yourself on both sides. To start:.Clench your teeth with your hands on your cheeks you&;ll feel the muscle pop outGently perform some circular massagePin under your hand and stretch by opening your mouth slowly(not to max) Hold at end of opening for a brief pauseRinse and repeat 8-10x. series

posted on April 11, 2017 by | No comments

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If you&;ve got headaches or neck pain that won&;t seem to go away even with treatment? Did you know your jaw could be the cause?.This is your masseter muscle. Primary closer of the mouth. Massseeetterrrr. .The Masseter is one of the muscles of mastication – or chewing. This muscle is responsible for closing the jaw so it is constantly used and often a contributing part to any TMD or jaw issues. If there are imbalances between sides. This guy will definitely be part of the guilty party. To muscle test it:.Clench your teeth with your hands on your cheeks you&;ll feel the muscle pop out. If you have pain directly under your hand. It&;s this puppy. . Next up is the self release video for it. series

posted on April 10, 2017 by | No comments

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TMJ Self screen – DeviationThis is a test of your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) / jaw. Is there any pain? If your jaw moves to one side? Is it on opening? Is it on closing? Is it both? Is there a click? Does your jaw move to one side then back? As you can see, there are a lot of questions to ask and get the answers to. As a disclaimer this is just a screen you can use to assess if you may potentially have a Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD). The easiest thing we can focus on here is your function. When you attempted the previous self screen – Could you open 3 knuckle widths? – normal More? – HYPERmobile less? HYPOmobileNow remember your jaw has two temporomandibular joints. If one side has MORE range than the other. your jaw will shift to a side. Sometimes too much range / or too little range can be caused issues affecting the articular disc. If you have a click chances are you may have what&;s known as a disc displacement. The next question is which way is the disc displacing and what can we do about it. But first, ask yourselves these questions6. What movements cause your jaw pain? does it change over time?7. Do you have pain during chewing? swallowing? biting? yawning? speaking?8. Do you habitually chew gum? eat lots of chewy candies, hard candies, corn nuts? Do you continually move your mouth?9. Do you usually chew on just one side?10. Does anybody tell you that you grind your teeth at night?Your answers to these questions should get you thinking about your daily habits and what types of things may be causing your TMD. It is much better to determine and treat the root cause of the problem. But for now the next videos in this series will show you some basic stretches and exercises for your TMJ. series

posted on April 7, 2017 by | No comments

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TMJ Self screen – Jaw opening. This is a test of your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) / jaw. It is a basic function of your jaw in order to allow you it to function! You need to be able to do this to eat. Try the screen. Answer the following questions. I&;ll be adding more and more questions to this series that will prompt some thought if you have jaw issues (whether you know it or not!) 1. Could you open it wide enough?2. Was there a click or sound? If so, on opening or closing? or both3. Did it hurt? If so, on opening or closing?4. Did it lock or get stuck? 5. If you have any pain, tightness or discomfort – which side is it?Answer these questions as they can indicate a TMJ dysfunction or TMD. Some other symptoms to note during your self scree of TMD include: HeadacheWorn teeth (due to the teeth not resting on each other properly or whats known as malocclusion)Painful muscles in the cheek, temple, or neckClicking or poppingEarachesPain behind the eyesRinging in the earsToothache What we&;re trying to begin to do is pain a diagnostic picture. As a clinician these are the structures I will be checking and keeping in mind with your answers: Musculature of the Neck, face, and jawCartilaginous disk Ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels surrounding the joint, mouth, and teethDoes this sound like a lot? Well it is! but we&;ll slowly delve further into the rabbit hole. series

posted on April 7, 2017 by | No comments

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