Do you wake up and your jaw feels sore? Or do you have morning headaches? What about fatigue in your jaw at the end of the day? Did you just get your teeth cleaned and you were told you clench or grind? What is that all about and what does it mean?
Let’s break it down.
Firstly, we don’t know why you’re clenching or grinding or bracing your mouth. We haven’t seen you (yet!) and haven’t done an evaluation. We’re happy to do that, you can find the link for that at the bottom. However, you’re awesome for doing some research to figure this out. Taking control of the situation (anddddd maybe letting some control go) lets you enter into this informed and ahead of most. We’re so happy you’re here!
Bracing vs. Clenching vs. Grinding:
There’s three general terms you need to know.
Bracing: muscle guarding in your jaw where you might not be actively pressing your teeth together but your muscles are more active than they should be while at rest. You can also include tongue thrusting as a form of bracing here, but we’ll focus on that another time unless you’d like to read the world’s longest blog post.
Clenching: actively pressing your teeth together with firm pressure for long periods of time
Grinding: movement of the clenched teeth on one another, forwards and backwards or side to side.
Any of these can occur during the day (awake) or at night (night). You may or may not be aware you’re doing it at either time besides that aching feeling in your jaw, headaches, or neck pain.
The all encompassing term for these three is Bruxism.
Now that we’ve defined it, let’s discuss what causes it.
Think about holding something small and light for a long time. At first, you may not even notice you’re holding it. Maybe you’re taking frequent breaks and it never seems to bother you like if you’re writing a letter once or twice a day. Now imagine you have 500 letters to write and you sit down and write them all at once. I’m guessing your hand would feel quite fatigued after that. Bruxism works in a similar way. You’re holding tension in your jaw (and quite likely your neck and shoulders) and over a long time that adds up. You also likely don’t notice it until you are in pain, or feeling fatigued.
Does stress/anxiety/depression play a role?
Yes, it absolutely does. How we manifest these things in our body sometimes comes out through low level long duration muscle activation. I’m a huge advocate of working with a mental health professional that you trust and working through the processing of these thoughts and feelings to help. That being said, often the bruxism becomes a habit. Habits can be changed, but it does take effort.
Often we see a combination of muscle, joint, psychological, and breathing issues all playing into clenching and grinding, not to mention cranial nerve or vestibular components! Doing a detailed evaluation is the first step is creating the roadmap back to feeling better and being able to do more.
So what do you do now?
During an evaluation, we will look at your jaw, muscles, neck, spine, head and shoulders to figure out the root cause. From there we utilize hands on techniques such as massage and joint mobilization to calm symptoms down quickly. We then add in exercise to strengthen and control your head, neck, and jaw. One of the things we love is the resting position of the mouth which can be a great first step in making sure you’re in a relaxed position. From there, we build your control and abilities to form the habits that will keep you in the clear for the long term.
Ready to start working on your TMJ roadmap? Let’s come up with a game plan together! Start with a FREE 20 minute PT Starter Call – to discuss symptoms and goals. Or, if you are ready, jump straight to a Full PT Evaluation. We can’t wait to see you in the clinic and help you feel your best!
Need something else? Email martha@q4pt.com to chat further!
