5 Steps to Relieving the Pain in Your Jaw

Jaw Pain, or TMJD (which stands for tempomandibular joint disorder), as a common ailment that affects millions of Americans each year. Most people who get jaw pain, get it for a short period of time due to an intense amount of stress in their lives or injury. Some folks get more chronic jaw pain, which can be particularly difficult to treat and manage as there are not many proven methods of treatment for chronic TMJD that have been effective for more than just a small number of people.

In this article you will learn how to effectively treat your jaw pain in five simple steps, moving from most basic to more complicated. If a lower step is not effective for you, move to the next step.

Disclaimer: If your jaw pain persists, contact a medical professional.

Step 1: Ice. Like most injuries or swelling, ice can numb the pain and help facilitate healing. A twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off cycle should be sufficient. The more you can do this, the faster the healing will be.

Step 2: Ibuprofen or other over-the-counter swelling medications. If simple ice doesn't work, you can move to mild drugs. Most jaw pain is caused by swelling of the jaw joint, due to excessive clenching/grinding (bruxism) or tension. When the you take measures to reduce the swelling, you can help to the joint heal while at the same time removing the pain.

Step 3: Eating soft foods. A soft food diet is often recommended for the first few days or weeks of healing the jaw after pain has occurred. This reduces tension on the jaw. Consider eating foods like yogurt, soups, smoothies, and pasta. Just make sure to keep a healthy diet and continue to avoid sugars as much as possible, as fructose has been known to cause inflammation and hyper-tension.

Step 4: If your jaw pain has not been healed by now, you must start moving into long-term treatment and management. One simple way to start this long-term management is to start jaw exercises. Simple jaw exercises, like moving your jaw side-to-side with your hand pressed against it, can help strengthen your jaw and give you more control over it.

Step 5: Get to the root cause of the pain. If jaw pain is becoming an issue over many weeks or months, there is usually an underlying cause. Often times the underlying cause is stress or clenching (often times at night while you don't even know you're doing it). Consider taking a stress management class, or getting a mouth guard to help avoid nighttime clenching.