TMJ Help Program

The symptoms of TMJ can be many and variable. This article examines the commonest five complaints patients with TMJ present with as well as some methods to relieve these symptoms.
Some of the commonest symptoms of TMJ include :

1. Painful jaw or jaw muscles: One of the absolute commonest symptoms in TMJ patients. This symptom results from weakness and damage of the jaw joint causing the reflex spasm of the muscles surrounding it. This pain is severe and may last for long periods ranging from days to weeks.

2.Headaches: These result from the pain being referred from the jaw muscles’ spasm where the pain extends up around the ear and back to the posterior part of the head leading to severe headaches.

3. Sounds such as clicking or popping when moving the jaw: These usually occur on top of some sort of traumatic damage to the jaw. Most types of trauma will eventually cause the jaw joint to produce these sounds over time as well as the characteristic locking of the jaw at certain positions during motion.

4.Toothaches: This is a misnomer because it isn’t really your teeth that are aching but it’s the flaring up of the nerves around your teeth because of the pain radiating from your jaw joint. It commonly occurs at the back part of the mouth.

5. Ear Pain- Again, this is a misnomer. It’s also pain radiating from your affected TMJ causing the nerves near the ear canal to produce pain.

These are the commonest TMJ disorder symptoms in brief. If you have any or some of these symptoms, try to consult a physician as soon as possible because you’re likely to develop even more symptoms over time.

There are many options for treatment from pain killers to surgical procedures. Exercises have minimal side effects and have proven to be greatly beneficial, so its better if you consult your doctor about these exercises before choosing something as radical as surgery.