Home Care for TMJ Jaw Pain

One of the most important things to understand about TMJ is that many cases are transitory and do not require professional care. Often, you can start by treating your symptoms at home. Listed below are home remedies to try for your TMJ (TMD):

  • Switch to a soft diet
  • Don’t chew gum or chew on nonfoods, i.e. pens, fingernails
  • Avoid excessive or loud talking
  • Try to avoid stress
  • Limit jaw opening to an easy, comfortable width
  • Perform self-massage
  • Apply warm-moist heat to sore muscles and cold to swollen joints
  • Take over-the-counter pain medication

The goal is to rest your jaw and encourage natural healing by avoiding anything that overworks you jaw including stress-related jaw clenching, if you can control it.

Heat can significantly soothe sore muscles, however, it can increase inflammation, therefore, avoid applying heat to swollen joints and instead apply cold.

Over-the-counter pain medications not only help with pain, but can help heal. Pain leads to stress and can stimulate muscle activity. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) like Ibuprofen (Advil) or Naproxen (Aleve) can reduce swelling and help your jaw heal. Make sure to always follow the recommended dosage on the label or your doctor’s instructions. Never exceed recommended dosages unless your has doctor cleared it.

man with tmj and jaw pain

When You Need Professional Care

It is important to not try home care for too long. Postponing TMJ (TMD) treatment when you have a serious disorder can make your situation worse. Here are some signs that you need professional care:

  • Jaw pain does not resolve or noticeably weaken after seven days of home care
  • Pain worsens
  • Pain spreads to new areas
  • Pain is too severe to respond to over-the-counter medication
  • You develop other symptoms, such as ear pain or ringing, or a headache
  • You have jaw popping or clicking
  • Your jaw motion is limited or locks
  • Pain resolves but then returns

If you experience any of the above, then it is time to seek professional care.

Types of Jaw Pain in TMJ

TMJ is a complex disorder, and it can affect your jaw in many ways. There are several common ways that TMJ can trigger jaw pain, including:

  • Muscle pain
  • Bone pain
  • Joint pain
  • Nerve pain

Muscle pain is the most common type of jaw pain. It is caused by sore, overworked muscles. When your jaw is out of balance, your muscles won’t be able to find a comfortable resting position so they become overworked and tired. This often results in a dull, throbbing ache that affects your jaw muscles.

Overworked muscles put stress on your bones, thereby making them ache as well. The bone pain may even be felt around the roots of your teeth, where your muscles connect, and other places stressed by muscle activity.

Joint pain is localized at the temporomandibular joints, on either side of the head, just in front of and below the ear. Joint pain may correlate with jaw clicking or popping, and/or restricted motion, but not necessarily.

Nerve pain occurs when the jaw joint or jaw muscles are putting pressure on nerves. You may experience a sharp, zinging pain that comes and goes. Sometimes the pain may take weird shapes, like an isolated circle of pain.  You may also experience numbness or tingling rather than pain.

Regardless of the type of jaw pain you experience, TMJ (TMD) treatment can usually help. If you would like to find relief from jaw pain in Anchorage, please call our Anchorage neuromuscular dentist at (907) 349-0022 today.