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Examine the jaw and the neck
How the joint tracks, where it clicks, what the muscles around it are doing, and what the upper cervical spine is doing underneath it.
Health conditions · TMJ / TMD
The joint you useevery time you speak.
Put your fingers just in front of your ear lobes and open your mouth. That movement you can feel is the temporomandibular joint — and it causes a startling amount of trouble.
Into the jaw, ear and side of the head. The jaw joint sits directly in front of the ear, immediately above the top of the neck.
What tmj & jaw pain actually is
Patient education — general information about the condition, not medical advice about your body. Only an examination can tell you what is going on with yours.
The temporomandibular joint — the TMJ — connects your upper and lower jaw. A temporomandibular disorder, or TMD, is a problem with that joint and with the muscles and tissue around it. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research estimates that around 10 million Americans have a TMD, and that as much as three quarters of the population may experience at least one symptom of one at some point.
TMD symptoms have a habit of masquerading as other things. A dull, aching pain around the ear that spreads to the side and back of the head, or down the neck. Earache with no infection. Headache. Pain when biting, chewing, talking, or opening and closing the mouth. Clicking, popping or grating when the jaw moves. In some cases the jaw locking outright.
It matters that the TMJ sits directly in front of the ear and immediately above the top of the cervical spine. The jaw, the neck and the muscles of the head are mechanically entangled — which is why jaw problems and neck problems so often show up together, and why one gets examined when you present with the other.
How it shows up.
Does this sound like you?
Tick what you actually feel.
Not a diagnosis, and not a test — nothing here can tell you what you have. It is a list you can take with you, because everybody forgets half of it the moment a doctor walks into the room.
0 things to mention. However many you ticked, the exam is what tells you anything.
What tends to be behind it
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Clenching and grinding
Often at night, often unconsciously. It loads the joint for hours at a time.
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Neck involvement
The upper cervical spine and the jaw share muscular and mechanical relationships. Trouble at one end shows up at the other.
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Stress and habits
Nail-biting, chewing gum constantly, jaw clenching under stress — all sustained loads on a small joint.
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Trauma
A blow to the jaw or the head, or a whiplash injury, can change how the joint tracks.
How care approaches it
What Dr. Meansactually does about it.
Written as aims, not outcomes — because that is all anyone can honestly promise you before they have examined you.
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Manual work on the joint and the muscles
Chiropractic treatment may involve manipulation of the jaw and the muscles surrounding the temporomandibular joint, with the aim of relieving tension and pain.
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Address the upper cervical spine
Given how tightly the jaw and the top of the neck are linked, the neck is usually part of the picture rather than a separate matter.
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Break the habit loop
Rest the jaw where you can. Pay attention to grinding, clenching and nail-biting — the things quietly making it worse between visits.
Chiropractic care is not a cure for any condition on this page, and no honest clinic will promise you one. What Dr. Means can do is examine you, tell you plainly whether this is something chiropractic care is suited to help with, and refer you elsewhere if it isn't.
If you come in
Here is what actually happens.
Step 01
Free consultation
Call or book online and we'll sit down with you at no cost or obligation. Tell us what's going on and we'll start building the picture.
Read this part
When this is not a chiropractic problem.
Some of what looks like tmj & jaw pain is something else, and some of it is urgent. A clinic that only ever tells you it can help is not being straight with you. If any of the following is true, do not book a chiropractic appointment — get medical care.
- A jaw that locks and will not open or close.
- Jaw pain with chest pain, shortness of breath, or pain down the left arm — jaw pain can be a heart-attack symptom. Call 911.
- Facial swelling with fever, or a dental abscess — see a dentist or doctor.
- Jaw pain straight after a blow to the face — rule out a fracture first.
This page is general health information, not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for examination by a qualified provider. In an emergency call 911. See our healthcare disclaimer.
TMJ & Jaw Pain, honestly answered.
Including the questions where the answer is no.
Should I see a dentist or a chiropractor?
Genuinely, it can be either — and sometimes both. If the problem is dental (an abscess, a bite problem, a cracked tooth), that is a dentist's job. If it is the joint and the muscles around it, that is where chiropractic care may be aimed. The exam sorts it out, and the honest answer sometimes ends with a referral.
Why does my TMJ click?
Clicking usually means the disc inside the joint is not tracking smoothly as the jaw moves. Clicking on its own, with no pain, is not necessarily a disorder.
What should I do in the meantime?
Rest the jaw where you can — softer food, less gum — and pay attention to the habits that load it, particularly clenching and grinding.
Is TMD permanent?
The recommendation from the NIH and NIDCR is to start with conservative, reversible treatments rather than aggressive ones. Surgery and implants penetrate the tissues of the face, jaw or joint, and that is not a step to take first.
Often connected
Not sure if this is what you have?
That is what the consultation is for — and it costs you nothing to find out. If it turns out Dr. Means is not the right person for it, he will tell you that too.