TMJ HELP!!!

Get relief this holiday season with these 2 tips.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Or is it? Life is already busy enough and adding more “tasks” to a full schedule naturally leads to stress. Even good stress is still stress. You are doing more things in the same amount of time after all.

We use extra muscles in times of stress to just breath. Our shoulders rise leading to tightness and not knowingly we clench our jaw. Clenching the jaw too much leads to TMJ dysfunction or jaw pain.

Start here to relieve jaw pain:

Tip 1: Periodically throughout the day rest your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Simple enough. Right? This will reduce the tension of your strong jaw muscle called the buccinator.

Tip 2: Perform 5 belly breaths. Place your hands on your stomach and notice your hands rise as you take a deep breath in, exhale and let a long breath out. Keep your neck and shoulders relaxed. Belly breathing uses your respiratory diaphragm muscle instead of your neck and shoulder muscles to bring in air. Using neck and shoulder muscles to breathe puts added tension on your TMJ.

So, just like Santa make your belly big with belly breathing and rest your tongue up on the roof top.

May you have a TMJ pain-free holiday season!