04 Aug Is Jaw Pain Caused By Stress?
In this blog post we answer the question: is jaw pain caused by stress?
Okay, your jaw hurts. Is it because of stress? Maybe. But probably in the same way that stress can cause neck pain when our shoulders creep up to our ears. Stress and jaw pain are often assumed to be related, as in, “yeah, my jaw hurts, but I’ve been stressed lately.” But not everyone who is stressed has jaw pain, so what gives?
The best answer for “is jaw pain caused by stress?” is that for many people, there’s a link between the stress in their life, and the subconscious tendency to tighten a muscle in their body. For people who experience jaw pain, the muscles that they tighten are the ones that act on the jaw to open and close it. For other people, they may “carry their stress” in their neck or shoulders.
So why doesn’t your jaw pain magically disappear when you’re not stressed? Probably because you have essentially taught your brain that the “correct” amount of tension in your jaw is a lot, and that’s how it should move your jaw.
The masseter (one of the main muscles of the jaw) is the strongest muscle in the body, based on weight. A healthy jaw can product 200 lbs of force on the molars. And stress teaches the brain that that muscle should always be engaged and active. In fact, you may actually notice MORE discomfort in your jaw after a period of intense stress, similar to how your jaw hurts in the morning after a night of clenching it.
So what do you do? Well. It would be great if all the stress in your life disappeared, but that’s probably not going to happen. So we recommend treatment from a variety of professionals:
• Dentists can assess the damage to your teeth and fit you with a mouthguard if you have a tendency to clench your teeth at night
• Registered Massage Therapists (RMTs) can work on the muscles of your jaw to reduce the tension in them
• Chiropractors can adjust the jaw (and work on the muscles as well) to encourage healthy movement of the joint
• Physiotherapists can teach you exercises to balance the strength of your jaw and help correct its movement pattern (and also address the neck because it’s closely related to the jaw… but that’s a story for another blog post)
Moral of the story: you don’t have to live with jaw pain, even if you do have a lot of stress in your life. There are ways to undo the effects of stress on the jaw, and by taking advantage of those effects, your jaw pain can stop impacting your life. Book in at MYo Lab today!
We are always accepting new members who are ready to commit to their health and wellness journey. If you are ready to experience the MYo difference, book now so one of our team members can welcome you to the MYo Lab community!