TMJ cracking, anyone else?

[neijia_boxer]

I added the images from the email

[GrahamB]

Head upright to let the shen [spirit of vitality] rise to the top of the head. Don't use li [external strength], or the neck will be stiff and the ch'i [vital life energy] and blood cannot flow through. It is necessary to have a natural and lively feeling. If the spirit cannot reach the headtop, it cannot raise.


- it's Tai chee 101! Maybe those chi huggers were on to something after all....

[BonesCom]

Your TMJ is where your lower jaw attaches to your skull. If you have your head flexed forward most of the time, instead of using your upper torso and neck muscles to support your heavy old head, your body recruits a different set of muscles - the ones you'd normally use to open and close your mouth - to keep your head from falling forward.

Bad posture means your jaw muscles go into flexion and stay that way. Sort your posture out.

Overworked liver/Wood Element, I´d guess. It´s also spring (if it is spring where you are...) which is linked to Wood and tends to make people hyperactivate their wood-element or simply get wood-related symptoms due to the season and wind. Wood would manifest in one of the end-points as more tension in your jaws.

Eh?

It's a simple postural issue...

You might be on to it, I am a little kyphoid, which I am trying to remedy (he says as he slouches at the computer)

[BonesCom]

Head upright to let the shen [spirit of vitality] rise to the top of the head. Don't use li [external strength], or the neck will be stiff and the ch'i [vital life energy] and blood cannot flow through. It is necessary to have a natural and lively feeling. If the spirit cannot reach the headtop, it cannot raise.


- it's Tai chee 101! Maybe those chi huggers were on to something after all....

Perish the thought!

Cheers guys, I've been doing a little exercises I found somewhere on youtube and it seems to be helping. As I said it's not really that painful (most of the time) I just find it disconcerting.

James

[neijia_boxer]

got this in the email-

Treating TMJ & Headache Pain
by Erik Dalton PhD., Certified Advanced Rolfer

A positive test for a head-forward posture requires that the zygomatic arch (under the eye) be more than 3 centimeters forward of the sternoclavicular joint. Clients presenting with head-forward postures are vulnerable to increased stress not only in the neck but the jaw as well. When treating TMJ and head pain, therapists should be reminded that the jaw functions separately from the cranium. Embryologically, the jaw develops from visceral myotomes…not cranial.
In those with forward head postures, the head and neck move forward in the sagittal plane causing the occiput to backward-bend on atlas to level the eyes (See Class II in Box A below). This proprioceptive reflex (Law of Righting) will always cock the head back to level the eyes against the horizon even if it means ravaging the neck.

As the head moves forward, the capital extensors (suboccipitals, semispinalis, splenius, longissimus and trapezius) must fight gravity to keep the head from dropping. Soon, the entire nervous system goes into a heightened state of alert. In a forward head posture, passive tensile forces begin to shorten and tighten the hyoid and digastric muscles creating a strong tug on the mandible which translates the jaw posteriorly and inferiorly (Fig 1). Jaw retrusion develops as these shortened muscles fight to hold the jaw back as the head translates forward. To make matters worse, the temporalis and masseter muscles are forced to co-contract against the hyoids so the mouth can be kept closed. Prolonged temporalis and masseter contraction promotes abnormal mandibular positioning and disc compression at the temporomandibular joint (TMJ).

Common symptoms
accompanying this
strain pattern include:
• Suboccipital pain syndromes
• Mouth breathing
• Difficulty swallowing
• Teeth clenching
• Face and neck pain
• Migraines

Box A:
When comparing Class II and Class III structures to the Class I, Normal, the line of weight bearing (LWB) falls more posterior to the plumb line in the Class II, Retrusive jaw (extensor-dominant neck) and anterior in the Class III, protrusive jaw (flexor-dominant neck).

The Class II subject is likely to experience TMJ dysfunction as the mandible is crammed into the condyles.



Note: TMJ disruption is notorious for its negative impact on the 11th cranial accessory nerve. Since the upper trapezius and sternomastoids are directly innervated by the 11th cranial, jaw pain neurologically shortens these muscles initiating a “Catch 22” pain cycle. As the upper traps cock the head back and the SCMs pull it forward, excessive tension mounts in the hyoids, digastrics, masseters, and temporalis which, in turn, cause even greater TMJ compression and pain.

Optimal head and neck functioning requires that TMJ surfaces retain their ability to glide freely on one another. Since the main innervation to the dural membrane is the vagus and trigeminal nerves, faulty neck and jaw alignment can pinch and twist this sensitive membrane affecting myoskeletal as well as visceral structures. Trigeminal nerve treatment should always be complemented with masseter and temporalis work for they are also “up-regulated” in most TMJ and forward head cases.

Occipitoatlantal work demonstrated in the Advanced Myoskeletal Techniques home-study course helps therapists relieve 11th accessory and 9th trigeminal pain conditions. Meantime, continue using all techniques that have proven successful in reversing forward head postures and accompanying TMJ pain.

I have alot of success with something called the Pettibon system http://www.pettibonsystem.com/- I use the neck stretch tracking (repetitive cervical traction to open up vertebrae of neck in front), head weight (to strengthen neck muscles to hold up head) and foam roller for spine.

[BonesCom]

Hey neijia_boxer that email you got was interesting. One thing my trainer and his teacher mentioned was that I tend to stick my head forward during the contraction phase of the squatting monkey, maybe it is this that is causing my TMJ, I had been trying not to do it but maybe I still am. Will have to be intensively schooled very soon I think, cheers man

[neijia_boxer]

Squatting monkey is probably not the sole cause of your TMJ- there are many factors at play. spine alignment, foods you eat (stomach fire) old injuries, muscels, teeth, stress, nerves, ect.