How to Cure TMJ Without Surgery

If you have been diagnosed with the TMJ disorder you need to know how to cure TMJ without surgery. The TMJ (Temporomandibular joint) disorder is a very difficult problem to treat because of the amount of use your jaw joint and muscles get every day. You use them for eating and talking and yawning which you need to do every day. Some of us use them a lot more than others.

The most common cause of TMJ disorder is clenching and/or grinding your teeth in your sleep because of stress, tension, or anxiety, so if that's the case with you, you should know that you will have to treat the cause of your TMJ as well as the TMJ itself. You should do everything possible to find a natural TMJ cure rather than resort to surgery but whether you had surgery or not to correct your TMJ you would undoubtedly wind up with the same problem soon because of the teeth clenching and grinding if you don't treat the stress.

Exercises You Can Use to Cure TMJ

There are many different exercises you can use to cure TMJ but, I have to say this again because it's so important, the most crucial thing you need to do to cure TMJ is to find ways to handle and cope with your stress. You may want to try some Yoga breathing exercises.

Now I am going to give you some exercises you can try that may help you cure TMJ. You may want to do these 3 times per day. Some good times to do them would be when you get up in the morning, in the afternoon when you get home from work and before going to bed. Just try to be as relaxed as possible and clear your mind from your problems.

Tongue Stretch - First close your mouth gently and place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth just behind your front teeth. Then slide your tongue back towards your throat as far as you can. Now open your mouth slowly and make sure you keep your tongue touching the roof of your mouth. Only open your mouth as far as you can without letting your tongue lose contact with the roof of your mouth. Hold that position for 5 seconds. Relax for 5 seconds then repeat the exercise 4 more times.

TMJ Stretching - Stretching your jaw muscles will aid in relaxing and repairing them. To do this you simply open your mouth as wide as possible without pain. Do this 10 times. Next, open your mouth wider on the left than on the right. Open as far as you comfortably can and then close your mouth. Then do the same on the right side. You can do this several times per day and the more the better.

TMJ Assisted Stretching - for this exercise you will be doing the same as the previous exercise except this time you will use your hand to pull your mouth a little wider than you can using just your jaw muscles. If this causes pain don't do it!

Crooked Jaw Repair - This exercise is for when you have a deviation or a shifting of one side of your jaw when you open your mouth. Some TMJ patients will have this when one side of their jaw is damaged and not the other side. This exercise will help you to reeducate the side that is not working properly. You'll want to do this one in front of a mirror so you can make sure you are opening and closing your jaw straight.

Even if you have to use your hand to guide your jaw at first you need to try to open your jaw evenly on each side. Open and close your jaw gently and straight and do it 10 times in a row. Then relax for a minute and do 2 more sets of ten times. Try to do three sets of ten like this three or four times per day.

Something else that could help is to do these stretching exercises with the help of warm moist heat. This will increase the blood flow to your jaw and facial muscles which will mean more oxygen is getting to them. Just put two hand towels in some hot water and then squeeze them out and place one on each side of your face while you are doing the stretching exercises.

These exercises may or may not help you but it's worth a try and you never know...they could lead to your TMJ cure.