How to take care of your jaw?

We use it to bite, yawn, chew, sing or swallow. Complicated and highly-stressed, the jaw must be pampered to avoid pain, or loss of mobility.

This is article is validated by the Doctoranytime's Scientific Committee on Osteopathy

First, massage it.

Without you necessarily noticing it, your jaw is often tensed, leading to a contractures, and pain to the cervical and dorsal vertebrae!

In order to avoid this difficulty, think to massage, and relax this area of tension. The first thing to do is to manage it, and to relax this area of tension. First, place the thumb under the chin, and your indexes folded under it. Then, pinch the area all along the jaw, ending at the lobes of the ears (3 ears). Then open the mouth slightly and do small circular massages with the pulp of the fingers, on all the area of the jaw. You can go all the way up on the cheeks.

Then, relax it.

You can relax the jaw with small gestures, give it back its mobility, or help identify problems.
To make them efficient, repeat those gestures several times in front of a mirror, 10 times in a row, with a slow pace.

Few solutions are possible to detect possible symmetry problems: opening and closing the mouth slowly, move the jaw from the left to the right, move it from forward to backwards; turn the chin clockwise and back.

If you feel any pain, it is urgent to talk about it to your dentist.

Control its opening.

The two temporomandibular joints (left and right) connect the temporal bone (fixed) and the mandible (mobile) and allow to open it as a hinge.

To check the opening level of the jaw, it must be possible to place between the teeth of its open mouth the width of 3 joined fingers (index, middle and annular). If the space is too small, painful, or the jaw "squeaks" or "rattles", the disc (cartilage) may be displaced, or a muscle may restrict the opening. You may have to talk to your dentist or a specialized physiotherapist.

Stop the grinking

Teeth grinking is linked to stress. The friction can damage the teeth, cause stiffness and morning pain. Physical exercise can help relieve the pain, by decreasing the pain, and get a better sleep. It is also possible to wear gutters at night, in order to avoid teeth erosion.