Now keep your tongue pressed against the top or your front upper teeth as you open your mouth as far as you can. To do this exercise, start from that resting position. This exercise will help relax the masseter and the temporalis by activating opposing muscles. The second part of that is an active exercise.

Every time you see those, ask yourself if you are clenching or in the resting position. Put a sticker on your computer or a rubber band on your wrist. See figure 3.Īs mentioned in the breathing article, it is a good idea to give yourself a reminder. The resting position is as follows: lips together, teeth apart/not touching, and the front of your tongue resting where your upper teeth meet your gums in the front of your mouth. What we are trying to do is prevent the jaw from clenching so we put it in a position that it can’t clench. The first is finding a “resting” position for your jaw.

Now, there are two simple fixes for these types of headaches. When strained the temporalis will give you pain in your upper teeth and/or a headache along the side of your head. The temporalis is a muscle you can feel on your temples when you clench your jaw. When strained the masseter will give you pain that can feel like a tooth ache, an ear ache, or a sinus headache. The masseter is the muscle you can feel under your cheek when you chew. Both of those examples would start hurting pretty badly fairly quickly.Īs follows, the muscles involved in closing your jaw and chewing are the masseter and the temporalis. It would be similar to doing bicep curls nonstop or holding a weight straight out in front of you for hours on end.

But by clenching their jaw or chewing gum all day they are putting their chewing muscles under constant tension. This could be stress, poor posture, dehydration, etc. People clench their jaw for many reasons.

Similar to people not realizing they are breathing improperly, many people often don’t realize they are clenching their jaw. TMJ stands for temporomandibular joint or in simpler terms… your jaw. Tom Cotter, DC Active HealthKCįor the third iteration of this series, we will focus on TMJ related headaches. Headaches and How to Fix Them – Part 3 TMJ and Your Headaches Dr.

Travell and simons forehead pain