Exercises for Patients with TMJ Disorder

A person experiencing cracking or popping sounds while talking or chewing should find out the medical reasons behind it. Often we experience such sounds but tend to ignore it, which is wrong. These might be signs of a temporomandibular joint disorder or TMJ disorder. The common factors resulting in TMJ disorder include: teeth grinding, stress, slipped disc of the jaw etc. As the disorder progresses the patient might also experience pain in the jaw and its adjacent regions. Doctors treat TMJ disorder by realigning the patient’s jaw, which helps in reducing the pain. Besides that he will recommend performing certain exercises regularly for getting rid of the disorder completely. Below we have discussed some of the exercises recommended to patients suffering from TMJ disorder:

Assisted & resisted opening:

To perform this exercise, first place the middle and index fingers on the front teeth of your lower jaw. Apply gentle pressure in a way as if you are trying to open the jaw using the fingers. Once the jaw opens, using the fingers close it down. Repeat this 10 times.

Place the hands together in a way so that they form a cup like structure. Place the chin onto this cup. Now, keeping the hands steady open your jaw. Press the jaw against the hand for 5 seconds, release the pressure. This exercise should also be repeated 10 times.

Correcting the teeth alignment:

Place yourself in front of the mirror and smile. Continue to move the jaw until you manage to align the gap between the front teeth of your upper and lower jaw. Now, open the lower jaw slowly; while doing so make sure that the front teeth of the lower jaw are aligned properly with the front teeth of the upper jaw. Perform this exercise for 10 repetitions.

Tongue depressor stretches:

Take 2 tongue depressors and place one on the other. Then, put them between the front teeth. Keeping the tongue depressors intact move the jaw sideways; you must perform this action with extreme care and keep on biting the 2 tongue depressors placed between your teeth. This exercise must be done at least once every day. When you will find that performing this exercise has become less challenging for you, increase the number of tongue depressors for augmenting the stretch.