Body
Your jaw clicks and locks and hurts, and the clenching that's causing it has been with you for years.
You hear your jaw click when you open your mouth. Sometimes you can’t open it all the way. The pain travels into your ear and your temple. Your dentist or oral surgeon or TMJ specialist offered you a bite splint, physical therapy, sometimes injections. Some of what they offered helped. You still have TMJ.
You’re putting tension into your jaw. Your jaw is taking damage on your behalf.
You still have TMJ.
Educational, not diagnostic. Not a substitute for clinical assessment.
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You very likely came out of childhood with a body that learned to clench. You may have grown up in a household where you couldn’t safely let strong feelings out, so you trained your jaw to hold them in. You may have built a career or a family life where you have to swallow what you can’t say. You may have been the responsible one who held everyone together, and your jaw has been doing the holding-together literally for years.
The treatments address the joint and the muscles around it. They don’t reach the clenching itself. You’re still routing tension into your jaw, which is why the joint keeps absorbing the stress.
For the related grinding pattern, see I grind my teeth . For tension headaches, often paired with TMJ, see I have tension headaches .
You’re using your jaw to hold what you’ve never felt safe to release. We work on the holding.
Our strategic therapy work begins at what you’ve been routing into your jaw for years, alongside whatever your dentist or oral surgeon has set up for joint protection. We identify the situations where you clench down rather than speak or act, and we change what happens in them. The joint stops absorbing damage because the load stops being sent there.
The click goes quiet. The bite splint becomes a backup, not a requirement.
Write to us and we'll get back to you personally. A qualified practitioner answers every inquiry, usually within two business days.
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