Immediate TMJ Relief - The Best Remedies for TMJ

Are you suffering from TMJ ear or TMJ jaw pain? There really is no "quick fix" for TMJ pain but there is a natural home remedy that can give you immediate relief. If you want a full TMJ treatment program you really should get in touch with a TMJ doctor or TMJ specialist so you can get a complete examination and a plan for TMJ therapy that is designed to address your TMJ symptoms and the root cause.

The best remedies for TMJ are not pain killers, TMJ guards or night guards, or surgery. Pain killers may relieve your pain for a short time but they will only work temporarily and there are usually side effects to deal with. TMJ guards could help if your problem was caused by a long-term bite misalignment but for them to be effective they have to be designed specially for you and should be adjusted periodically. Surgery is highly invasive, painful, expensive, and unproven to help this condition.

Something to keep in mind is this: TMJ ear or jaw pain usually means there is a TMJ disorder and the most common cause of this condition is stress. The stress causes you to clench your jaws or grind your teeth during your sleep and you wake up with sore muscles on the side of your face. This can cause your ear or jaw to hurt. If you begin by learning some stress reducing exercises such as Yoga breathing exercises or something similar it will go a long way towards relieving your TMJ ear or TMJ jaw pain.

What you'll find here is a sample of simple and natural exercises you can do at home. Remember, there is no "quick fix" but if you want to reduce your pain dramatically, use these exercises regularly and they should lessen the severity of your condition.

First we'll start with some passive stretching exercises, do these exercises two or three times per day:

1. While standing in front of a mirror, slowly open your mouth and make sure it opens straight and symmetrically. If you have to guide it with your hand, do that. Open and close your mouth slowly and symmetrically ten times.

2. Again in front of a mirror, with your mouth slightly open move your jaw to the right and left slowly and in a controlled manner. Keep doing this until you have moved it in each direction ten times.

3. With your tongue touching the roof of your mouth, slowly open and close your mouth ten times without letting your tongue lose contact with the roof of your mouth.

Now we'll do some active exercises that require a little more force. If these exercises cause pain do the first three for a few days until you can do these next exercises without a lot of pain. We'll begin with some assisted stretching exercises. If you feel pain while doing these exercises do them with less force because it's important to avoid pain when doing stretching exercises:

1. Slowly push your jaw straight out causing an overbite. Go as far as you can and hold it for 30 seconds. Then when you bring it back in wait 30 seconds before doing it again. Do this exercise ten times.

2. With your fist pushing against the bottom of your jaw slowly open your mouth against the pressure. Just apply a small amount of pressure and do this ten times. If you feel pain you need to stop doing this exercise and do the other for a few days until you can do this one without pain.

3. Clench your jaw for about five seconds with even pressure. Do this exercise ten times and concentrate on relaxing. This exercise should help you stop clenching your teeth in your sleep.

Some people find relief with ice packs or heat therapy. If you haven't tried these you should try heat therapy first. Since warm and moist heat works better use face towels that have been heated with warm water and place them on your ears and jaw for 10 to 15 minutes. Do this 3 or 4 times per day. If heat doesn't work you can try the same with ice packs.

You need to refrain from chewing gum or any type of chewy candy and you could also make sure to stop eating hard crunchy foods like nuts and salads and foods that are very chewy. If you must eat a type of food that's chewy then cut it into tiny pieces first.

Many times when someone finds relief from their TMJ ear or jaw pain they stop doing the exercises and the pain returns. If you will do these exercises for 4 to 6 weeks it should result in a more long-term solution for your TMJ ear pain.