TMJ, Neck pain and Headaches - All for one and one for all!

If you suffer from TMJ (tempo-mandibular-joint) pain you know that this is one of the most irritating things you can ever come across, Yes, even worse than watching the L.A. Lakers lose yet another game with five all-stars!

 On Jan. 14th 2013 I had a new patient come into the office complaining of headaches, right TMJ and neck pain.  He reported having TMJ pain and discomfort for the last 10 years which was getting worse and and started causing neck pain and headaches.  Pain scale was 8/10. Patient is a 20 year old male!

Physical examination was unremarkable for TMJ range or motion or translation, but he did have palpable tenderness on the right TMJ. Cervical spine musculature reveled severe muscle hypertonicity and tenderness to touch.  The patient also had several cervical and thoracic joint restrictions, or as we like to call them subluxations (see below for explanation). 

He was diagnosed with multiple subluxations, muscle tension and TMJ disfunction.

His treatment consisted of:

• Cervical and Thoracic Chiropractic Manipulations
• Myofascial Release/ Trigenics Myoneural Medicine Techniques
  
• Class IV Therapeutic Laser therapy to the neck and TMJ

End result after 4 treatments: 80% reduction in TMJ pain (actually the patient now describes it as "tight" instead of pain), 100% reduction in neck pain and 90% reduction in headaches. 

This young man has been dealing with this for over 10 years!  We are excited for him and grateful to be of service.

Here are the actual patient's comments: "I've had jaw issues as long as I can remember and would get severe headaches from this. I have been seeing Dr. Eric for under a month and no longer suffer from even half of the daily jaw pain I am accustomed to. And I have had only one very mild headache since beginning my treatment!"

Most people do not understand that there is a very direct connection from the neck to your jaw, and restrictions in the neck can cause abnormal jaw mechanics and pain. Because I wanted to be thorough, I treated everything, but likely, correcting his neck spinal restrictions might have been enough.

If you are suffering from TMJ pain, neck pain or headaches, please be sure to consult a licensed doctor of chiropractic or give us a call if you have any questions.

Dr. Eric

Doctor of Chiropractic in Santa Monica, California.

Subluxation:
A misalignment in the bony structures of the spine. Subluxations can create pressure or irritation on the various nerves in your spine, and can cause a wide variety of symptoms throughout your body, such as localized pain, soreness, irregularity, and weakness. When pressure is applied on a nerve in your spine, the nerve energy is interrupted, and sometimes this can profoundly affect the function of other systems or organs in your body.