Jaw Pain

Jaw Pain

Jaw pain can be complex. Depending on how old you are, different options will be available to you.

Often, we can co-manage patients with dentists or orthodontists to achieve better, lasting pain relief.

If you are young enough orthodontic management may be part of the long term solution to provide longer lasting relief from TMJ pain. Malocclusion is a major contributor to TMJ dysfunction and pain over the lifetime. In these cases we can aim to provide temporary relief from pain while the orthodontic appliances are in use to create lasting change.

Typically jaw pain presents as pain around the TMJ (Jaw joint), facial pain, headaches or difficulty moving the joint. Sometimes the use of a splint is required or Botox injections from a dentist are required to achieve sustained relief.

Where conservative manual therapy is indicated, and pathology has been ruled out we can aim treatment at the TMJ (jaw joint) to encourage easy, complete pain free movement by targeting the muscles of the TMJ and the jaw joint directly. In many cases internal and external treatment of structures is required. For internal jaw treatments we take all necessary hygiene precautions (washing hands, use of gloves, etc).

Often patients ask us if we use needles to treat jaw pain? Our answer is that all therapies in this clinic are done manually, by hand. We have chosen not to use needles.