How to Get Rid of the Pain from Grinding Your Teeth
Is your stress level so high right now that you find that you’re grinding your teeth more and your jaw hurts?
Increased Stress
I hope you are all staying safe and isolating the best you possibly can. But one of the challenges that the social isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic has created for many of us is increased stress from being cooped up all day and not having the normal outlets for exercise, fresh air and the comfort of our normal daily routines.
Working from home is difficult and I find myself distracted by things like the dust bunnies in my closet and the weeds in my garden. Not that I do anything about them though, because when I get that sort of energy that accompanies those thoughts, it seems to propel me right to the refrigerator. It is after all, the only door that is safe to open these days.
Staying Productive and Healthy
Staying productive and healthy is essential to well-being. Yet when I sit down to work, the internet lures me in for a session of retail therapy. Eeven if I don’t buy anything, I can window shop. Oohh, bad pun!
I am trying really hard to exercise regularly, but the sprints up and down my stairs are getting kind of boring. I can tell you that I am a little proud because I’ve discovered that soup cans are great for free weights and I’m using a bag of lemons for a kettlebell.
The problem is that even though I know that hydrating with water is so good for me, five o’clock somewhere seems to get earlier and earlier every day and making a mixed drink gives new meaning to the phrase ‘going stir crazy’. The end result of this of course, is increased stress and I tend to take that out on my jaw joint. If clenching and grinding your teeth were an Olympic sport, I would hold the record for gold medals. Now ordinarily, I would go to see my physical therapist, but since the COVID-19 virus has made accessibility to services such as that almost impossible, I devised a simple program to try to decrease the pain that I’m having in my jaw. The really good news is that it works.
Exercise is Essential
Exercise can be an essential component for reducing jaw and facial pain due to temporal mandibular joint disorder or TMD. Sometimes this is called TMJ. If you listened to last week’s podcast, then you know that TMJ is the actual joint and TMD is when it does not function properly and causes you pain. The condition may also cause clicking in your jaw, difficulty eating and yawning as well as earaches and ringing in your ears, which is referred to as Tinnitus. If you have the condition really badly, you run the risk of having your mouth lock open or closed.
Most TMD problems are due to muscle spasms in the muscles that open and close your mouth. What you might not know is that it also involves your neck muscles and the muscles in your upper back. Exercises for TMD can help restore normal motion and decrease the pain or tired clicking and or locking sensations in your jaw. Treatment for TMD typically involves working towards decreasing the muscular inflammation in order to restore normal motion to your jaw joint.
The added benefit is that if you suffer from neck aches or backaches, it can help with these, too. I like to begin by using a wet heating pad on the joint to warm it up a bit and loosen the muscles.
You can also use a wet washcloth that you run under hot water, but not too hot because you don’t want to burn yourself. Or you can take a hot shower beforehand.
Exercise #1
Now the first exercise might be the most important one, and it’s really quite simple. Place your tongue behind your teeth on the roof of your mouth and relax it there. Your teeth should be slightly apart with your lips closed. Now, hold this position for about six seconds. You want to do six repetitions of the same thing. This exercise alone can be practiced all day long. Every time you feel tension in your jaw, just put your tongue on the roof of your mouth because this is the best relaxed position that you can keep your mouth in to keep your muscles at rest.
The only time these muscles should be contracting is when you’re eating or speaking or doing something else that is considered normal function of your mouth.
Exercise #2
Now for exercise number two. Keep your tongue on the roof of your mouth and open and close your mouth very slowly. Do this for six repetitions. This will slowly stretch your jaw muscles without overstretching them for exercise.
Exercise #3
Exercise number three. Place two fingers under your chin and push up with very slight pressure. Now open and close slowly six times. By adding this light resistance to your jaw opening and closing, you can significantly improve muscular function around your jaw.
The next two exercises are actually for your neck because believe it or not, a lot of temporomandibular joint problems originate in the neck.
Exercise #4
Exercise number four. Place both of your hands behind your neck and interlace your fingers. Now keep your hands there and then nod your head down to flex your upper cervical spine, then gently push your head up into your hands. This will give you some mild traction. Now hold the flex position for six seconds and then return to neutral again. Repeat this six times.
Exercise #5
Exercise number five is what I call the chicken neck and is particularly important if you sit in front of a computer all day long because forward head posture is one of the biggest reasons to have TMJ pain.
So when you take a break from staring at your computer screen and you’re sitting in your chair, relax, sit up straight and pull your shoulders down. Then pull your head back on your neck without tilting it backwards. Kind of like the way a chicken pecks the ground. This will retract your chin and improve your posture, counteracting the effects of leaning forward constantly and putting all that stress on your neck. Like the rest of the exercises, hold it for six seconds and repeat it six times.
Exercise #6
And last but not least, exercise number six. Again, sitting upright in a chair, draw your shoulder blades together. For this one, you can picture yourself squeezing something between your shoulder blades. The six second hold and the six repetitions apply for this one as well. The whole process takes maybe five minutes and it’s kind of meditative. In addition, it’s great for your posture.
These exercises have been so effective that I have been able to significantly reduce the amount of joint pain that I’m having in my face. Plus, you don’t need any special equipment and you can do them anywhere, even at a stoplight in your car. In the beginning, I had to use an ice pack afterwards and a little bit of ibuprofen, as well. I’ve been doing this now for two weeks religiously and now the exercises are enough.
AND NOW FOR A FUN FACT!
Doc Holiday who is famous for helping Wyatt Earp win the shootout at the O.K. Corral was a dentist.
If you have any questions about the exercises, please do not hesitate to message me on the “Contact Me” section. If you have any other questions about your dental health, please write those in.