I have had acupuncture for TMJ and found almost instant relief. Whether or not it was the treatment, or just having the opportunity to COMPLETELY relax, I don't care. It worked really well. That said, TMJ is one of those things I will take narcotics for, and I really don't like taking meds, but whoa. It hurts.
My doctors advice was to avoid stress, don't chew gum, and don't eat crunchy foods. Quitting my ultra-stressful job has near completely eliminated my TMJ issues. Stress and chewing gum are major triggers for me.
Give acupuncture a try. It probably works best as continuous treatment, but works amazing on an as needed basis. Facial massage might be nice too, to help release those muscles pulling things out of whack.
+ a billion to having massage for TMJ. Many massage therapists have taken special courses in jaw-massage (I don't know the technical term) to stay competitive. It really helped me a lot last year with jaw pain.
I'm the commenter above. My husband is an Activator chiropractor. Where have you heard this? Jaw /TMJ adjustments are a standard part of Activator care, as long as you go to one with advanced certification.
do you stretch your jaw? i have tmj and saw a specialist a few years back when i got my mouth guard and she gave me a stack of tongue depressors and had me open my mouth as wide as i could WITHOUT PAIN, and see how many tongue depressors (stacked up) would fit between my teeth. then she told me to stack that many up and like 5-10 times a day, open my mouth as far as i could WITHOUT PAIN (if theres pain then dont open so far!) and hold it for 10 seconds (again if it starts to hurt, close your mouth a little bit more). then relax and go about your business.
the goal was that over a matter of days and weeks, i would be able to add a few more tongue depressors (and i was). that the gradual and repetitive stretching would help relax the overly tense jaw muscles. and the most important thing she stressed was that this stretching is NOT supposed to hurt.
Acupuncture is fabulous for TMJ! The community acupuncture clinic I work at treats a lot of people who have this issue, and I've seen them have some great results!
Here is a list of the community acupuncture clinics in Michigan. You should be able to get less expensive treatments there, and therefore have more of them (which will help cure the TMJ faster & more efficiently). http://www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org/clinics#MI
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That said, TMJ is one of those things I will take narcotics for, and I really don't like taking meds, but whoa. It hurts.
My doctors advice was to avoid stress, don't chew gum, and don't eat crunchy foods. Quitting my ultra-stressful job has near completely eliminated my TMJ issues. Stress and chewing gum are major triggers for me.
Give acupuncture a try. It probably works best as continuous treatment, but works amazing on an as needed basis. Facial massage might be nice too, to help release those muscles pulling things out of whack.
Feel better!
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the goal was that over a matter of days and weeks, i would be able to add a few more tongue depressors (and i was). that the gradual and repetitive stretching would help relax the overly tense jaw muscles. and the most important thing she stressed was that this stretching is NOT supposed to hurt.
Reply
Here is a list of the community acupuncture clinics in Michigan. You should be able to get less expensive treatments there, and therefore have more of them (which will help cure the TMJ faster & more efficiently).
http://www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org/clinics#MI
Hope that helps :)
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