Chiropractic and TMJ

Living in the fast paced world of Bellevue Washington, stress is a common part of our day. Job stress, family stress, traffic stress, and name it stress is hard to get away from. In my office I see a lot of the physical results from stress. One of the physical manifestations of stress that I see on a daily basis with my patient is TMJ.


What is TMJ? Great question! TMJ stands for temporal mandibualar joint, or your jaw bone and joints. Simply put, TMJ is pain the joint or joints of the jaw. It is a very painful condition that can affect the way you eat, talk and even sleep. Clenching and grinding of your jaw, which are common while under stress, is a common cause of this problem.


I see quite a lot of patients with TMJ in my practice and have found that it is very closely associated with conditions of the neck. As a chiropractor I first look to see if the joint has been misaligned, and if it has use very gentle steps to realign the joint. Many times this will help in eliminating TMJ pain, and symptoms.
I use very gentle steps to help create normal alignment in the jaw.Once aligned the next step is re-balancing the muscles so the TMJ symptoms do not come back. For this I use simple a home exercises. If you have TMJ and have found no cure it may be time to see a chiropractor. The testimonial below is from one of my many patients who have found relief while under my care.
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"I have had pain from my misaligned jaw (TMJ) for years and years. I have tried mouth guards, massage, been to different doctors, stretching, etc. Nobody can help and they all refer me to oral surgeons (who want to break your jaw) but no insurance companies, medical or dental will cover anything to do with TMJ and even most doctors cringe and run away at the mere mention of it. I never thought Chiropractic treatments could help this sort of thing, but eventually out of desperation asked Dr. Weir if there was anything he could do. After our session I had no more pain and was able to fully open my mouth without it clicking or my joint popping out of place for the first time in over 10 yrs! - (plus, so far it's staying that way without falling right back out of place). He was more informative on things I can do to help reverse the damage (without surgery) than ANY of the "specialists" I have seen. I should also mention that he has a fantastic staff and the office is super comfortable. For the first time in a looong while, I feel hopeful that I won't have to live with this pain for the rest of my life. - thank you Dr. Weir!!! - C.B."