TMJ Trigger Point Therapy

I had recently been suffering with severe TMJ (temporomandibular) around the beginning of ‘09.  It became almost debiliating and at it’s height I found it so painful to eat that I couldn’t tolerate more than a few mouthfuls.

Using the trigger point therapy guidelines in the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook I was able to pinpoint the problem muscles and treat the main trigger point (right side of jaw).

These couple of links describe the problem I had and how I fixed it.

Injury and Pain: My First Trigger Point Therapy Success: Jaw (Mandibular) Pain.

TMJ or Jaw Pain by Kathryn Merrow

My trigger points were located in the pterygoids as shown in the diagram below (borrowed from Claire Davies).

TMJ stands for temporomandibular joint and painful symptoms that arise in the joint are something referred to as TMJ for short but are also known as TMJD (temporomandibular joint disorder), TMD (temporomandibular disorder), or TMJS (temporomandibular joint syndrome).

The fact that this is called a syndrome or disorder tells us that this is not a specific condition but rather an range of associated symptoms that occur with the mandibular joint.

So, although my problem was centered around the pterygoid (which I suspect is pretty common), if you are having TMJ pain your trigger points may reside elsewhere, even including muscle of the neck.

The workbook lays it all out perfectly, as usual but if you are having severe pain problems now and can’t wait for the book to arrive then don’t hesitate to ask us at GUS (you can ask in the thread of the first link) and I or any one of my crew would be happy to crack open the workbook and help you figure it out.  Kathryn Merrow is a member of GUS and is a great resource for these kind of pain syndromes.