Tag: LMT

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Treating TMJ issues: using essential oils for pain relief

A couple of weeks ago, I inquired of a Facebook group for women what they do for jaw pain.

A couple of women mentioned specific essential oils they use for jaw pain.

One said she puts lavender oil on her aching jaws. Another mentioned layering marjoram, lemongrass, and wintergreen essential oils.

All of these oils are analgesics and help relieve muscle pain. 

Dr. Axe (one of my favorite internet doctors) recommends peppermint oil for pain, frankincense oil for inflammation, and lavender oil to relax tense muscles.

You need to dilute the essential oils with a carrier oil like olive or coconut oil to reduce the intensity, because some oils are so strong, they can irritate your skin.

Then massage into your jaw muscles. It doesn’t hurt that they smell nice! 

When people come into my office feeling stressed, I often wave an open bottle of Young Living’s Peace and Calming essential oil under their nose to help them relax faster. 

I take a whiff myself, too. I just love this oil. 

If I know someone is going through an unusually stressful period, I rub a drop or two of Young Living’s Valor essential oil into their feet, focusing on the K1 area in the middle of the sole under the balls of the feet. 

This point’s poetic name is Bubbling Spring, and pressing it has a calming influence. 

Do you use essential oils for jaw pain? Please share in the comments what helps you.

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Treating TMJ issues: the jaw-pelvis connection

The jaw-pelvis connection is real! When I ask my TMD (temporomandibular disorder) clients if they also have pelvic alignment issues, a lot of them say yes.

If your pelvis is out of alignment, quite often, so is your jaw.

Here’s how that relationship works: The back of your pelvis includes the base of your spine, the triangle-shaped sacrum. Your jaw — mandible — is near the upper end of your spine, and it has a special relationship with the uppermost two vertebrae at the top of your neck, C1 and C2.

Because the opening/closing motion of the jaw is both hinging and gliding (open your mouth slowly and you can feel it hinge, then glide forward as you open wider), the axis of rotation is not in the actual jaw joints but is located between these two vertebrae, according to Guzay’s theorem (Guzay was an engineer interested in neurology).

The images below show the TMJ and the axis of rotation when with jaw closed (left) and open (right). The upper cross-hairs show the TMJ, and the lower cross-hairs show the actual axis of rotation for jaw opening and closing. 

(Image source: The Heart of Listening Volume 2 by Hugh Milne)

When your pelvis is misaligned, it affects these vertebrae, impacting neck and head posture and neurological well-being. (This is why nearly everyone I treat for TMJ issues also has neck issues, which I treat too.) 

How can the pelvis affect the jaw? There is a tough, inelastic membrane surrounding your spinal cord that connects your sacrum with your cranium. The dura mater lines the inside of your neurocranium, includes membranes between the two hemispheres and between the cerebrum and cerebellum of your brain, and forms the dural tube containing cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the spinal cord, all the way down to your sacrum. 

The dural tube is attached to the C1, C2, and C3 vertebrae and then descends unattached all the way down the spine to the sacrum, where it attaches to bone again. The dura mater continues to the tip of the coccyx.

When the sacrum is not aligned with the other pelvic bones — in other words, when you have sacroiliac joint problems, it torques the inelastic dura mater all the way up to the upper neck vertebrae that affect the movement of the TMJs. 

This torquing of the dura mater may be seen in abnormal spinal curves, pelvic rotation or tilt, head tilt, and cranial bone misalignment, which can affect your fluids, hormones, and central nervous system.

Here’s a little exercise: put your fingertips in front of your ears and open and close your jaw slowly a few times. Notice if your left and right TMJs move differently. You may notice one side opens first and/or protrudes further out or forward than the other. 

This shows your TMJs are unbalanced. Because the mandible is one bone with two joints, even if one joint is out of balance, the other joint is affected, though you may not feel symptoms in both. 

It seems likely to me that this contributes to nine times more women than men suffering from TMJ disorders, since women have more pelvic floor issues than men. (Also more stress.)

The floor of the mouth, viewed from below.
The floor of the pelvis, viewed from above.

Other ways these two areas resonate:

  • The sacrum also crosses the midline and has two joints on either side, the sacroiliac joints. 
  • The pelvic floor and the floor of the mouth are similar in structure, as seen in the images above. Both are horizontal tissues in the more vertical body. The places where vertical and horizontal tissues meet are generally more subject to holding strain patterns.
  • Fascia in muscles and bones connects the pelvis and jaw. Restrictions in the fascia affect the alignment of bones.
  • Many people clench their jaws when stressed and may also tighten their anal sphincters. 
  • At about day 15 in embryological development, two depressions form: one develops into the mouth and the other develops into the openings at the other end of the digestive canal.
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Treating TMJ issues: who experiences it?

Did you know that about 12 percent of Americans are experiencing TMJ disorders at any one time? This is from TMJ.org.

Also, did you know that women are 9 times more likely than men to experience severe pain and restricted jaw movement? The majority of women who have TMJ disorders are in their childbearing years — which indicates that hormones, pregnancy, labor, and delivery may play a role. 

Also, many women have full-time jobs and still do the majority of the housework and child care. If that’s not stressful, I don’t know what is! 

Some known causes, according to TMJ.org, are autoimmune diseases, injuries, infections, dental procedures/prolonged mouth opening, pre-surgery breathing tube insertion, and arthritis.

Genetic and environmental factors can increase the risk. A particular gene variant more prevalent among TMD sufferers increases sensitivity to pain. Gum chewing and sustained postures may also play a role.

How about stress, I ask? How about clenching and grinding habits and the resultant muscle tension from overuse of jaw muscles? 

The way I see it, after working on TMJ issues therapeutically as a massage therapist since 2013, in addition to the known factors listed above, these issues can also stem from:

Stress and the accompanying muscle tension

Habits like clenching and grinding the teeth and bracing the jaw 

Dopamine deficiency 

Structure, including skeletal asymmetries as well as poor waking and sleeping posture 

Medications that have jaw pain as a side effect

Family patterns that may be learned or genetic

There’s a sad lack of research and data on this topic, and I note that it’s one of many issues that affect more women than men (like migraines) that do not get much attention from the health care field. 

Imagine that migraines got as much attention from the medical field that erectile dysfunction has gotten. 

What to do if you have jaw issues? I offer a 30-minute in-person TMJ consultation to gather information and evaluate your issues. I teach clenchers an alternative to clenching as well as the above information to stop grinding.

These habits are major contributors to TMJ issues, and you can change them.

If you’re not in Austin, I can do the above as well as help you learn what to ask about when seeking TMJ relief near you. Just let me know if you need a phone or Zoom consultation.

I offer a combination TMJ Consultation plus TMJ Relief session in person in Austin, Texas. The consultation serves as an intake, so I have a better idea of what your issues are and how we’ll measure progress. Your consultation is free when combined with your first TMJ Relief session. This is a two-hour session.

To be fair, when you’ve had TMJ issues for a long time, or they are acute, you may need multiple sessions to retrain your system to retain the ease and alignment, along with doing your homework to stop clenching or grinding your teeth.

I offer a package of four TMJ Relief sessions for 10 percent off single sessions, best done a week or two apart. These sessions are 90 minutes and integrate various bodywork modalities — including work in your mouth — so that you feel great when you get off the table. They are best done over 4 to 6 weeks.

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Treating TMJ issues: reducing night grinding

A reader asked about grinding the teeth during sleep (night bruxism). Sleep labs have begun to investigate this.

They found that about 1 in 4 people with sleep apnea also grind their teeth while sleeping. When the apnea is treated, the bruxism goes away. So..if you grind, consider going to a sleep lab.

Most people do a little bit of clenching or grinding while asleep.

When is it a problem? When you wake up with jaw or facial pain, earache, headache, or experience difficulty chewing (TMJ disorder). Or perhaps your dentist sees wear and tear on your teeth. Severe bruxism can crack teeth and require expensive dental work.

Why do people grind their teeth at night more than just a little bit? Stress is the main cause and well worth examining. Reducing stress during the day is likely to result in less grinding at night — but no studies have been done on this that I know of.

However, one of the few people I know who stopped grinding their teeth in their sleep said that when they started a regular, daily meditation practice, their night bruxism gradually stopped. 

If you have personal experience, please share. We need these stories! 

Body mechanics can also play a role. Posture both while awake and asleep influences your nervous system and can produce or relieve stress and tension. Just as with athletic training, learning and practicing good posture may require special training. The Alexander Technique, the Feldenkrais Method, alignment-based hatha yoga (Iyengar and Anusara), and structural integration bodywork (i.e., Rolfing) may all be of help.

A special pillow that keeps your head and spine aligned can be helpful. The Therapeutica Sleeping Pillow comes in different sizes based on the distance from your neck to outer shoulder for side sleepers.

Probably the simplest thing you can try is changing your sleep position. If you have night grinding and sleep on your side, try sleeping on your back. It may take some getting used to but may bring you some relief.

Night bruxism may be an attempt to realign your cranial bones. Several sessions of craniosacral therapy may help.

If you have night bruxism, what has helped you?

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Post-concussion self-care

I’m getting referrals for craniosacral therapy for people who have had concussions, and I want to help these folks recover. Not knowing what a doctor may have told them but knowing how busy most doctors are, I am providing information here that may help injured brains recover more quickly. If your doctor tells you something different, listen.

People who’ve had concussions may report experiencing pain, dizziness or vertigo, balance issues, vision changes, speech problems, confusion, lack of focus, forgetfulness, nausea, sleepiness, emotional problems, and perhaps other symptoms.

To be clear on the language, concussions are also called mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).

To simplify, imagine your brain is like jello inside a closed container (cranium) cushioned by a thin layer of water (cerebrospinal fluid), with substantial membranes separating the major parts (hemispheres, cerebrum and cerebellum). A major impact slams the brain around inside the cranium, damaging brain tissue. Some research points to the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres, receiving the most damage from concussions. Continue reading “Post-concussion self-care” →