TMD often causes severe pain and discomfort. It can be temporary or last many years. It might affect one or both sides of your face.

Pain or tenderness in your face, jaw joint area, neck and shoulders, and in or around the ear when you chew, speak, or open your mouth wide. Problems when you try to open your mouth wide. Jaws that get "stuck" or "lock" in the open- or closed-mouth position. Clicking, popping, or grating sounds in the jaw joint when you open or close your mouth or chew. You may also have toothaches, headaches, neck aches, dizziness, earaches, hearing problems, upper shoulder pain, and ringing in the ears (tinnitus).

There are different causes of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Most often, it’s due to clenching of the jaw and/or grinding of the teeth. Tightened muscles around the jaw may also be related to arthritis or a jaw injury.

Conventional care that most people talk about is usually limited to night guards, devices worn through the night to prevent grinding of the teeth. However, the problem with these is that they often don’t address the overall problem. A night guard protects the teeth so they don’t wear down so much over time, and/or helps to realign the jaw to prevent an abnormal position of the joint as you sleep. But none of this addresses the clenching, the tightening of the muscles in that area that are at the root of the problem. 

Studies have shown that massage therapy can help with the symptoms and pain associated with TMJ Dysfunction. The focus of this type of massage is on releasing the muscle tension and restrictions throughout the musculature of the jaw, face, neck, chest, and upper shoulders. That clenching of the jaw doesn’t just affect the TM joint, but rather the muscles controlling that area are positioned throughout the head, neck, and shoulders. It’s important to work them all to address the problem and prevent others.

You have probably felt the neck tension and headaches that can come along with it. While massage of the muscles in this area is important, intraoral massage can improve your results even more. Intraoral massage is just massage that is done on the cheek from inside the mouth, with a gloved hand of course. A recent study¹ has shown that combining intraoral massage with external facial massage is 80% more effective than just external facial massage.

The exact cause of a person's TMJ disorder is often difficult to determine. Your pain may be due to a combination of factors, such as genetics, arthritis or jaw injury. While massage can bring relief it is always recommended to consult your physician to make sure that there aren’t any of these underlying conditions.