Chiropractic and TMJ
Monday, March 17th, 2003 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanaleh
(I've mentioned this experience to both ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zogathon and hammercock in recent months, so I thought I might as well write it up in detail. I've been working on this entry slowly for weeks now.)
I grind my teeth. Particularly in my sleep (so does my dad). As a result, from time to time I have had occasional minor jaw pain or discomfort in the jaw joints (so does my mom). I forget how long ago this began happening, but it may have been as early as college (that would be the early 1990s, kids).
However, in 1999 I had a series of flareups that began lasting longer and feeling more worrisome. I mentioned it to my dentist at a regular appointment early in the year, and all I got was, "You probably grind your teeth. Here's a brochure on teeth-grinding. We could make you a mouthguard. Other than that, take some Tylenol." I then mentioned it to my primary-care physician at my next regular checkup, a couple months later, and all I got was, "You probably grind your teeth. You could get a mouthguard. Other than that, take some Tylenol."
Since I'm a fan of treating root causes rather than masking symptoms, this did not strike me as an ideal answer. There had to be something physical going on that could perhaps be resolved rather than simply medicated. Eventually I decided that the next resource to try out was chiropractic.
I looked in the Yellow Pages and picked out a chiropractor that (a) was near me (in Porter Square, Cambridge) and (b) specifically mentioned "Joint Pain" in his display ad. For the record, this was Jon Simon at Hands-On Health Associates in the Porter Exchange building. He turned out to be a friendly, fairly young guy (late 30s) with nice hands (chiropractors always have, I guess).
The first appointment was mostly an evaluation, with a couple of small adjustments at the end. He took some history and asked me what brought me to pursue chiropractic as an option (primary answer: I'd done a lot of reading up on it). He did a bunch of evaluative things -- testing range of motion, watching me walk up and down the hall, and so on -- and said that basically he didn't see much in the way of misalignment or other distinctive problems.
But he did tell me some very interesting things about jaw pain: specifically, that while, yes, teeth-grinding is the proximal cause, the reason for the teeth-grinding tends to be that the body is trying to work off muscle tension that travels up to the head and basically has nowhere else to go. And also that jaw problems tend to be related to hip problems and balance issues -- and he did note I had some tightness in the hips, and it's true that I've had some balance and postural issues (though haven't we all?). The other major thing he discussed with me was my bag-carrying habits; I use a backpack, but I was in the habit of slinging it off one shoulder. He said that was a major counterproductive force, and that really the very best thing would be to get a lumbar pack (he spent several minutes showing me the one he carried himself), but if nothing else I should start wearing my backpack properly distributed across both shoulders.
Then he said he would try a couple of neck adjustments before I went, so he had me get on the chiropractic table, which struck me as a cross between a massage table and a dentist's chair, except that the head section could be dropped down out of the way. I lay on my back and he sat behind me, took away the headrest, and cradled my head in his hands, rolling it back and forth slightly until I relaxed and let him hold the weight of my head. Then, deftly and without warning, he gave a sharp tug up and to the left. Clunk! went the vertebrae in my neck. "Gaaah!" went I. It was freaky! Between the loudness of the sound in my ears, and the slightly unnerving quality of having trusted anyone to pull a maneuver like that around my spinal cord... But the man was a trained professional, and so he did one or two more such adjustments and then sent me home.
I didn't feel any different immediately after the visit -- but the next day, I woke up and the jaw pain was noticeably less. I was astounded. I could still feel a little discomfort, but no actual shooting pain like it had been.
I had one follow-up appointment about two weeks later, and after that the pain was gone completely. And I haven't had a single flare-up in the 3-1/2 years since. Swear to God.
(Of course, I've also become really careful about wearing my backpack on both shoulders, to the point where carrying it one-sided for even a couple of minutes feels All Wrong. So maybe that's been the major long-term preventive factor. But hey, if it took a chiropractor to tell me that, I'm all for it.)
And now today, as it happens, I'm thinking I might need to give him another call, as I'm having a different problem with what seems to be a recurring spasm in the middle of my back. (It doesn't actually hurt, more of a tingly feeling. But on only the left side, which seems strange, and I'm not sure if it's primarily a muscular thing requiring massage or if I've actually got some kind of nerve compression going on. Matthew's been trying to work on it for me and so did Pup at lunchtime today, and so far it's still there.) But that's a story for next time.
zogathon and hammercock in recent months, so I thought I might as well write it up in detail. I've been working on this entry slowly for weeks now.)I grind my teeth. Particularly in my sleep (so does my dad). As a result, from time to time I have had occasional minor jaw pain or discomfort in the jaw joints (so does my mom). I forget how long ago this began happening, but it may have been as early as college (that would be the early 1990s, kids).
However, in 1999 I had a series of flareups that began lasting longer and feeling more worrisome. I mentioned it to my dentist at a regular appointment early in the year, and all I got was, "You probably grind your teeth. Here's a brochure on teeth-grinding. We could make you a mouthguard. Other than that, take some Tylenol." I then mentioned it to my primary-care physician at my next regular checkup, a couple months later, and all I got was, "You probably grind your teeth. You could get a mouthguard. Other than that, take some Tylenol."
Since I'm a fan of treating root causes rather than masking symptoms, this did not strike me as an ideal answer. There had to be something physical going on that could perhaps be resolved rather than simply medicated. Eventually I decided that the next resource to try out was chiropractic.
I looked in the Yellow Pages and picked out a chiropractor that (a) was near me (in Porter Square, Cambridge) and (b) specifically mentioned "Joint Pain" in his display ad. For the record, this was Jon Simon at Hands-On Health Associates in the Porter Exchange building. He turned out to be a friendly, fairly young guy (late 30s) with nice hands (chiropractors always have, I guess).
The first appointment was mostly an evaluation, with a couple of small adjustments at the end. He took some history and asked me what brought me to pursue chiropractic as an option (primary answer: I'd done a lot of reading up on it). He did a bunch of evaluative things -- testing range of motion, watching me walk up and down the hall, and so on -- and said that basically he didn't see much in the way of misalignment or other distinctive problems.
But he did tell me some very interesting things about jaw pain: specifically, that while, yes, teeth-grinding is the proximal cause, the reason for the teeth-grinding tends to be that the body is trying to work off muscle tension that travels up to the head and basically has nowhere else to go. And also that jaw problems tend to be related to hip problems and balance issues -- and he did note I had some tightness in the hips, and it's true that I've had some balance and postural issues (though haven't we all?). The other major thing he discussed with me was my bag-carrying habits; I use a backpack, but I was in the habit of slinging it off one shoulder. He said that was a major counterproductive force, and that really the very best thing would be to get a lumbar pack (he spent several minutes showing me the one he carried himself), but if nothing else I should start wearing my backpack properly distributed across both shoulders.
Then he said he would try a couple of neck adjustments before I went, so he had me get on the chiropractic table, which struck me as a cross between a massage table and a dentist's chair, except that the head section could be dropped down out of the way. I lay on my back and he sat behind me, took away the headrest, and cradled my head in his hands, rolling it back and forth slightly until I relaxed and let him hold the weight of my head. Then, deftly and without warning, he gave a sharp tug up and to the left. Clunk! went the vertebrae in my neck. "Gaaah!" went I. It was freaky! Between the loudness of the sound in my ears, and the slightly unnerving quality of having trusted anyone to pull a maneuver like that around my spinal cord... But the man was a trained professional, and so he did one or two more such adjustments and then sent me home.
I didn't feel any different immediately after the visit -- but the next day, I woke up and the jaw pain was noticeably less. I was astounded. I could still feel a little discomfort, but no actual shooting pain like it had been.
I had one follow-up appointment about two weeks later, and after that the pain was gone completely. And I haven't had a single flare-up in the 3-1/2 years since. Swear to God.
(Of course, I've also become really careful about wearing my backpack on both shoulders, to the point where carrying it one-sided for even a couple of minutes feels All Wrong. So maybe that's been the major long-term preventive factor. But hey, if it took a chiropractor to tell me that, I'm all for it.)
And now today, as it happens, I'm thinking I might need to give him another call, as I'm having a different problem with what seems to be a recurring spasm in the middle of my back. (It doesn't actually hurt, more of a tingly feeling. But on only the left side, which seems strange, and I'm not sure if it's primarily a muscular thing requiring massage or if I've actually got some kind of nerve compression going on. Matthew's been trying to work on it for me and so did Pup at lunchtime today, and so far it's still there.) But that's a story for next time.