Your temporomandibular joints (TMJ) help you to talk, chew and swallow. When inflamed or overused, you can experience symptoms like pain while chewing, headaches, jaw and neck pain, and clicking sounds in the jaw.

Ways to alleviate symptoms can include placing warm towels on your jaw, icing your jaw or taking pain relievers such as ibuprofen. TMJ exercises you can also help to alleviate symptoms. 

Stretching the jaw

Relaxing the jaw

Promoting jaw healing 

Reducing jaw clicking

Doing these three simple exercises daily can help manage your TMJ.

Softly place your tongue behind your front upper teeth. Gently release your lower jaw while relaxing your jaw muscles. 

Start with your tongue touching the roof of your mouth. Slowly open and close your mouth while relaxing your jaw muscles.

Hold your shoulders back, press your chest up, and pull your chin back so that you tuck your chin against your neck. This should create a "double chin" effect. Hold for 3 seconds, and repeat 10 times.

TMJ can be tough to manage, and painful to experience each day. Doing these exercises each day can help. If you really want to help your TMJ, you can also start wearing a nightguard. Wearing a nightguard while you sleep is another proven way to help reduce muscle tightness in the jaw. CustMbite's Hard Surface Nightguard provides the highest level of protection so that you can wake up feeling pain-free and refreshed.