TMJ Physical Therapy: Treatments, Exercises, & FAQs

What Is TMJ Physical Therapy?

After you’ve been diagnosed with TMJ by a healthcare provider, they may refer you to a TMJ physical therapist as part of your treatment plan. During a TMJ physical therapy appointment, a physical therapist will begin by discussing your symptoms and asking questions about when these symptoms are better or worse. Next, they’ll perform a variety of tests to measure your neck and jaw’s range of motion, evaluate your posture, and assess your jaw strength.

After they’ve finished evaluating you, they’ll walk you through their findings and create a treatment plan. These treatment plans often include in-office care and exercises you can do at home to address your jaw pain.

While physical therapy is usually a part of a more holistic treatment plan and won’t solve your TMJ on its own, it can provide several benefits. For example, TMJ treatments from physical therapy are noninvasive and can help you restore jaw function and reduce pain.

What Physical Therapy TMJ Treatments Are Available?

TMJ treatments will vary based on your physical therapist’s recommendations and their evaluation of your TMJ. However, some of the most common physical therapy TMJ treatments you can expect to receive at a physical therapist’s office include the following:

1. Joint Mobilization

Joint mobilization is a common technique used to treat TMJ, particularly if someone with TMJ has a displaced articular disc. During joint mobilization, a physical therapist will manually adjust your joint to fix its alignment and position.

2. Physical Therapy Exercises

The foundation of most TMJ physical therapy sessions is teaching patients how to perform exercises that can reduce their pain and correct jaw misalignment. Some common TMJ physical therapy exercises your physical therapist can teach you to perform yourself at home may include:

• Forward movement: A jaw forward movement exercise involves placing an object about a quarter-of-an-inch thick between your front teeth. With the object in place, you’ll move your jaw forward, ensuring that your bottom teeth are ahead of your top teeth. A similar exercise involves slowly moving your jaw from side to side while you hold a similarly sized object in your mouth.
• Tongue lifts: An easy physical therapy exercise for TMJ is tongue lifts. During this exercise, you’ll keep your tongue touching the top of your mouth while you slowly open your mouth and then and close it.
• Chin pressure: To start a chin pressure exercise, you’ll put your thumb under your chin and lightly push up. While you keep pressure on your chin, open your mouth and hold it open for five seconds, repeating the process as many times as your physical therapist thinks is necessary.
• Chin tucks: During a chin tuck, you’ll begin by standing or sitting with your chest up and shoulders back. Next, move your chin down to your chest, hold it there for three seconds, and then lift it back up. You can repeat this process a few times to stretch your TMJ.

Alongside the sample TMJ physical therapy exercises listed above, your physical therapist will likely teach you other exercises, and if you have trouble doing them at home, make sure to ask your physical therapist to go over them again with you.

3. Postural Correction

At times, improper posture can cause TMJ symptoms. For example, you can put too much stress on your jaw joint when you stand or sit with rounded shoulders and a forward-tilted head. A physical therapist can help treat postural issues with various postural control techniques like slouch overcorrection. They may also have you perform scapular stability exercises to better position your shoulders and spine.

4. Dry Needling

Your physical therapist may also recommend dry needling, as a growing body of research has shown it can offer pain relief from TMJ symptoms. For example, a 2019 review on the topic found that the available evidence indicated that dry needling was a better treatment for reducing pain intensity than sham treatments and other pain interventions. Furthermore, a 2022 clinical trial that evaluated dry needling as a treatment for TMJ disorders found a significant short-term reduction in facial pain and muscle activity following a dry needling session.

While more research needs to be conducted, dry needling may benefit those with TMJ. During this treatment, a physical therapist will insert thin needles into your trigger points and muscles for a short period to reduce discomfort and tension.

5. Massage Therapy

Many people with TMJ struggle to eat or talk due to pain from TMJ and the ways it can restrict proper jaw movement. A physical therapist can perform massage therapy (also called soft tissue release) on a patient’s neck, shoulder, facial, and jaw muscles to assist with TMJ pain.

During a soft tissue release session, the physical therapist will attempt to relax muscles related to chewing, such as the lateral pterygoid, masseter, and medial pterygoid muscles. Massaging these muscles increases circulation and lowers inflammation related to TMJ pain.

Schedule a TMJ Physical Therapy Appointment in Raleigh at Chain Effect

If you’re looking for TMJ physical therapy in Raleigh, NC, or the surrounding areas, Chain Effect is ready to help you. Our team of licensed physical therapists regularly works with people suffering from TMJ, providing physical therapy treatments to help alleviate pain and restore function. We’re also happy to provide dry needling to patients, as we’ve seen it regularly help our patients who struggle with TMJ pain.

Learn more about our physical therapy services today.