By Karden Rabin Some of the most common pathologies I see at Bodywork Professionals are jaw tightness, pain and temporal-mandibular joint disorder (TMJD). Some people are aware of their jaw issues and come in specifically to address them. Others aren’t aware of their jaw tension until I make contact with it. Whether or not there is pain or TMJD associated with the jaw, it is almost invariably tight and in need of therapeutic attention. Most clients have no idea why their jaw is tight. At most, some attribute it to stress. This of course, is true; stress is the fuel that feeds the tension in the jaw musculature. But, a more developed understanding of the mechanisms directing that stress may help practitioners and clients alike find better ways to manage or resolve jaw issues. The key is to recognize that evolutionarily, the mouth and the act of mastication is one of our most ancient abilities. Long before we had limbs, perhaps even before we had fins, we had mouths and jaws with which to grab onto and chew our food. As we evolved and moved to land, our mouths were our primary way of manipulating the environment. It was only when we developed sophisticated hands and opposable thumbs that the jaw lost its preeminence as our primary environmental manipulator. Therefore, the link between the brain and the jaw became deeply ingrained over tens of millions of years as our main voluntary body mechanism. It follows then, that since the brain is the primary generator of stress, and the body acts like a capacitor, or battery for that stress, that the first somatic circuit that stress would transmit to would be the jaw. This of course, is just the beginning. Because as the hands evolved to assist the mouth, the mouth was freed up to take on entirely new tasks including elaborate facial expression and speech. Both of these functions elevated the actions of the mouth and the jaw from simple mastication and manipulation to the highly refined brain functions of emotional and mental expression. We all know that emotions can be “read” on the face and this expression comes bundled with a whole new set of brain to jaw circuitry, which can and does, potentiate the transmission of stress between the two. With speech came the construction of the most elaborate new brain-mouth connections ever. Not only was this wiring capable of making sounds, but those sounds carried great emotional and mental importance. Our words could mean the difference between life and death, love and hate, praise or criticism and so on. As you may imagine, this caused our mouth and jaw to take on even more significance as a nexus for emotional charge. Taken together, the ancient functions of mastication and manipulation, combined with the more recent functions of expression and speech, and you have a superhighway of psychosomatic circuitry along which the transmission of stress is nearly inevitable. This stress charge will be absorbed by the musculature of the mouth, creating jaw tension which usually leads to pain, grinding, headaches, migraines and TMJD. But as with any pathology, possessing a more complete understanding of the underlying principles behind it, empowers both the therapist and the client to resolve it. In regards to the jaw, it is of the utmost importance to combine skilled therapeutic touch with education, awareness and emotional expression for long-term effectiveness. The importance of education, such as this article, is that it explains the mechanisms behind the jaw issues rather than having them be of some mysterious or idiopathic origin. You can’t solve what you don't understand. Once characterized and defined, the client and therapist can now envision a solution. Education alone is ineffective without accompanying awareness. Awareness is the monitoring and interpreting of something, in this case, the mouth circuitry, in order to intentionally change a habitual or unconscious pattern. Therefore, it is important that the client pay attention to their jaw throughout the day. This will allow them to gauge the tension in the jaw, recognize stimuli that increase stress and then develop mental and physical strategies for diminishing the brain-stress-jaw axis. Finally, it is important to consider emotional issues related to the jaw. Usually, these emotions have to do with communication. Does the client talk a lot or a little? Loudly or softly? Is the person bold or cautious? Does he or she talk freely about emotions or is the person reticent. Exploring these issues and empowering the client to express freely can go a long way towards eliminating the more subconscious stressors that contribute to jaw pathologies. When knowledge, awareness and expression are coupled with the application of therapeutic techniques by a skilled therapist, great strides can be made towards the resolution of jaw pathologies. Considering the ever-rising tide of stress in our society and inadequate outlets for such stress, massage therapists will continue to bear the brunt of helping those whose pain cannot be addressed by other means. As the experts in stress induced problems, investigating and understanding the avenues by which stress transmits itself to any place, or in our case, the jaw, is of vital importance to the success of our field. Power to the healers. * Massage in Albany, NY |