I remember when I used to listen to my dad eat food and his jaw would click and pop whenever he took a big bite. He didn’t have any pain and it went away after a while. But what do you do if the noise persists or worse, it starts to become painful and won’t stop?
If you have jaw clicking pain, you might want to start researching TMJ disorder and seeing if it fits your symptoms. It’s a jaw condition that affects something like 75% of the population of America. Pretty ridiculously large amount is it? Now, admittedly the greater proportion of these people have symptoms that dissipate over time, but there are still millions of people who have jaw pain and don’t realise they actually have TMJ.
So what can you do to fix it?
There are some options available to you, but it’s not an easy condition to treat. First things first, you should go and see your doctor or dentist about it. Find out what’s causing it and hopefully get it under control.
If you’re still at a loss after your appointment, then you should consider TMJ exercises. These are exercises created by physiotherapists that are made to strengthen and realign your jaw, getting rid of that annoying jaw clicking and jaw pain.
The exercises are very simple and very quick. I’d recommend getting a guide that has a full list of exercises and get a routine started. Once you get into a routine you’ll notice great improvements in your jaw. If you are experiencing pain, you may even notice immediate reductions in the amount of pain. If it’s just the jaw clicking, it might take a little longer, but eventually your jaw will start to behave naturally and function properly without clicking.
Another option which has some success, but in my opinion isn’t as effective as TMJ exercises are mouth guards for TMJ. These are sort of like the mouth guards you used to wear in sport, but you wear them at night to position your jaw and correct your bite, in the hopes of once again getting your jaw to behave naturally.
The guards have their bad sides though. Discomfort wile sleeping, they can fall out when sleeping and if you’re a teeth grinder you might grind right through them.
It might be an idea to combine both of these treatment options for your jaw clicking, but make sure your doctor ‘ok’s’ it. Sometimes you can do more harm than good with things like these.