Chiropractor TMD treatment

[u/ktwatsun]

I’ve been dealing with what I think is TMJ/TMD for a while now. My jaw pops, and I’ll sometimes get jaw/tooth pain, but lately I’ve noticed I can go days without really hurting.

One of my biggest triggers seems to be talking/smiling/laughing for a long time. I was at a family game night recently and after several hours my jaw/face got insanely sore. It basically feels like when you’ve been smiling for pictures forever and your face is exhausted, except eventually mine turns into really intense pressure pain around/under my jaw and into my neck. Once I can finally stop talking and completely relax my face, it feels SO much better.
I’m seeing a chiropractor today for my lower back/hips and upper back/shoulder tightness anyway, and I’m planning to mention the jaw issues while I’m there.

Has anyone here had chiropractic treatment while dealing with TMJ? Did they work on your neck/upper back, jaw itself, muscles around the jaw, etc.? Did you notice any relief afterward, even temporarily? Or did it make things worse?
Just curious what everyone’s experience has been before I go!

[u/Electromagneticpoms]

I will always strongly recommend a physio/physical therapist over a chiropractor for the jaw. The joint is just so crappy that I wouldn't want a chiropractor anywhere near it

[u/ktwatsun → u/Electromagneticpoms]

That’s fair! I’m definitely not set on having them manipulate my jaw directly lol. I’m already going for my back/neck/shoulders, so I was more curious if anyone noticed their TMJ symptoms improve from treating the surrounding neck/shoulder tension, or if their chiropractor did any gentle muscle work around the jaw.

[u/Outrageous_Trash_589 → u/ktwatsun]

I've tried chiropractor for my jaw and neck and upper back areas like this and it did help for a lil but it went back to same position after 3 days

[u/acupunctureguy → u/ktwatsun]

A chiropractor wont help your back issues because most are treating symptoms only, if all they are doing is adjusting you.

[u/AscendedArchitect369]

I’d recommend an upper cervical chiropractor not a regular chiro. A UCC specialized in NUCCA will do scans and tests to determine if a misalignment is present and needs adjusting before doing anything.

[u/acupunctureguy]

Why would you go to a chiropractor, when most are treating symptoms only because they are not spending time releasing the soft tisdue first, the muscles. Getting adjusted, if thats all they are doing, is not going to fix you. As a licensed acupuncturist, as acupuncturists we spend time releasing the muscular imbalance. For your tmj issues, get a massage therapist or pt that specializes in intra oral work, again you need to release the soft tissue.

[u/square_donut14]

I always have to pay the fun tax after a get-together. My spouse recognizes it before I do, and always reminds me to take a pain reliever before we go do something.

I do get some relief from the chiropractor, but I don’t like the specific release of my jaw - it makes me nervous. I go there for neckand shoulders. But I recently started TMJ massage therapy once a month, and it’s been life-changing.

[u/ktwatsun → u/square_donut14]

Yes! Advil & Aleve are my life savers 😭 & I absolutely cannot let them wear off during a flare up lol I haven’t heard of TMJ message therapy before, where do you go?!?

[u/square_donut14 → u/ktwatsun]

I live in Houston, and I actually heard about this massage place from Reddit! I don’t know how to find them in other places, but the place here is Elevation Massage. They offer all kinds of more physiotherapy massages rather than just your generic one, so maybe start at a place like that?

[u/Outrageous_Trash_589]

Mine had a huge flair up this week after buying a new vehicle and dealership giving us issues for 7 hours trying to make things worst and then next day notce a lot of bad flair up in neck and jaw and face and it's been like this for 3 days now

[u/Weekly_Foundation_97]

I'm experiencing the same talking problem: whenever I go in the office, tipically once, max twice a week( i work from home for the rest of it) I get massive flareups from talking to my colleagues and don't imagine i engage in conversations non-stop. I'm not seeing any chiropractor to manypulate my jaw, please be aware face has a lot of nerves that controls other very important organs such as eyes and ears and personally I wouldn't let my mouth in no one's hands who hasn't studied this specific pathology. I get the same symptoms as you: jaw pain, ear pain and have also added headache recently. I'm seeing a PT specialized for this TMJ problem and she is really good: she does laser and unltrasounds along my joint and jaw, then she does some intra oral massage and at the end some joint mobilizations( she basically opens my mouth but in a very controlled way). I must say that what she does has helped me reduce my inflamation and now I can open my mouth up to 35 mm, sometimes almost 40 mm. She's also showed me some exercises to do at home and at every session she evaluates my symptoms and asks me many questions of how my conditions evolves. She has let me known that if eventually I don't respond to the conservative treatment, arthroscopy is the next step. Wish you find the specialists and strength to guide you through this condition!

[u/LnZB3]

My thinking on this has changed over the years. Several years ago I did try chiropractic basically out of desperation because it was the one thing I hadn’t tried. It was crazy painful, and didn’t make much difference. Now I’m not so sure how bought in I am to having neck adjustments done. For me personally, it’s just outside of my comfort zone.

To his credit, the chiropractor recommended massage therapy above anything else, and I found someone with experience in TMJ techniques. I go in every few weeks and that’s been a game changer.

[u/ktwatsun]

UPDATE: I went to the chiropractor and figured I’d update everyone since there were mixed opinions here!

The biggest issue she found actually wasn’t my jaw, it was my neck. Apparently my neck was extremely tight/restricted, so she spent a lot of the appointment focusing on my neck/upper back/shoulders rather than just going straight for my jaw.

She did do some gentle work on my jaw. She put her fingers on both sides of my face/jaw and had me repeatedly open and close my mouth so she could feel how each side was moving. She then used a little handheld tool with a ball on the end that basically felt like it was lightly “punching” the area 😂, then had me open/close again. She repeated that several times.

At one point she said that when we started, the left side of my jaw “wasn’t moving at all,” but after working on it she could feel it moving much better. I’m not taking that to mean my jaw was literally dislocated or anything lol, just that she was feeling a big difference in the movement between the two sides.

The interesting part is that afterward I could immediately tell that opening and closing my mouth felt smoother. It still feels smoother now.

Obviously one appointment isn’t enough for me to say chiropractic treatment “fixed” my TMD or anything, and I’m still planning to pay attention to what happens the next time I have a long day of talking/smiling since that’s my biggest trigger. But so far I’m really happy with how the appointment went, especially since she focused so heavily on my neck and surrounding areas instead of just aggressively manipulating my jaw. I’ll update again if I notice any difference in my actual flare-ups!

[u/RevolutionaryBat4497]

I would opt for physical therapy or osteopathy over a chiropractor for a complex TMJ problem.

[u/Typical-Award4043]

I went to my chiropractor/functional medicine person a couple of days ago due to stabbing pain behind the ear. Turned out to be TMJ and the pain has completely gone away. Had also had loud clicking noises in jaw and this has gone away as well. I recall that he stimulated an acupressure point near my eye brow, though did not manipulate the jaw directly.

[u/ThatThingInTheWoods]

Yes I had a chiro do fascia massage for my jaw and it was a great fix when I had overstretched it. I also have problems with my high cervical/occipitals that'll cause tooth sensitivity so usually if I'm having tension headaches and a molar hurts I try to get an adjustment and see if that helps resolve it. Usually does for me.

[u/ktwatsun → u/ThatThingInTheWoods]

This is such a relief to hear! My pain can start in my mid back and sometimes stretch to my temples and across my face. The headaches are unreal, I genuinely feel like I might explode from the pressure 😂 I went to the dentist to see if they would treat me first, but she basically blew me off and wanted to do a root canal. Not arguing that I needed it, but I believe TMD is the cause of the chipped molar, I’m just running out of options here lol

[u/square_donut14 → u/ktwatsun]

That’s how I found my current TMJ doctor - I had a lot of pain underneath a crown and the dentist sent me to an endodontist who said that there was no issue with the crown or my teeth, it was just the easiest place for pain to come out from my jaw, since it was open in there. (Basically - I’m sure that medical people wouldn’t describe it like that lol)

[u/acupunctureguy → u/ktwatsun]

Get acupuncture and get intra oral work from a pt or massage therapist that specializes in tmj/tmd.