Most people don’t realize their jaw pain can actually start at the hips. If your hip doesn’t move well when you walk, your pelvis rotates differently… which changes how your ribcage and shoulders sit… which changes how your neck and jaw have to stabilize. Over time, that compensation shows up as tension, clicking, or pain. 💡 Why This Works: During walking, your hip needs to shift and load correctly to absorb force. If you can’t control that side-to-side motion, your upper body will subtly collapse forward or rotate to make up for it. Your jaw often becomes the “bracer.” 🔥 The Exercise: Take a wide split stance. Instead of driving your knee straight forward, push your hips back and slightly out to the side. Think: lead with your butt, not your knee. Stay tall through your torso — don’t collapse forward. Your knee can go slightly past your toes, that’s fine, but your chest should remain upright. You should feel your outer hip working. 🎯 What You Should Feel: Glute and outer hip engagement on the lunging side. If you feel it mostly in your quad or low back, reset and sit your hips back more. Jaw pain isn’t always a jaw problem. Sometimes it’s a load management problem starting from the ground up. Have you ever connected your hip movement to your jaw tension before? 👇🏼 #jawpain #tmj #hipmobility #posturecorrection #movementtherapy #physicaltherapy

👇 Is your jaw pain coming back no matter what you try? It might not be your jaw at all. Most people focus only on the TMJ, but your jaw doesn’t work in isolation. The way you walk — especially how your hips move during each step — can create tension all the way up into your neck and jaw. 🚶‍♀️ What’s really happening when you walk? Every step has a stance phase and a swing phase. When one leg swings forward, the opposite hip needs to fully extend behind you. If that hip can’t extend properly, your body compensates by leaning forward and shifting to the opposite side. That shift increases tension through the neck… and that tension can travel straight into the jaw. 💡 Quick Self-Test: As you walk, notice if one side feels tighter. Then try this: step one foot back, shift your body forward, and gently push your hips forward with your hand. Repeat a few times. If you feel strong tension or discomfort in the front of one hip, that’s likely your restricted side. 🔥 Step 1: Restore Hip Extension Use that same position as a dynamic stretch. Shift forward, apply gentle pressure from behind, feel the stretch in the front of the hip. Hold 2 seconds. Repeat 10 reps for 2–3 sets. 🍑 Step 2: Strengthen the Glutes Place a band around the opposite hip and practice stepping forward. The band will try to pull your thigh inward. Your glutes must work to control that motion. This improves hip control so you can stay upright when you walk — reducing tension traveling up to the neck and jaw. When you improve hip mobility and glute strength, you reduce compensations. Less compensation = less neck tension = less jaw stress. #jawpain #tmjpain #hipmobility #glutestrength #posturecorrection #movementmatters

Do you suffer from jaw pain & also notice your posture looks like this? Jaw pain isn’t always a “jaw problem.” If your head sits forward and your upper back rounds, it creates tension through the muscles under the neck, pulling the jaw slightly backward and compressing the TMJ. Over time, that compression can make talking, chewing, or opening your mouth uncomfortable. 💡 Step 1: Realign the head and neck Stand tall and bring your head back over your body. From there, gently tuck your chin and apply light overpressure with your fingers. Tuck, press, relax, repeat. The goal is to stack your head over your shoulders; NOT jam it backward. This reduces strain under the neck and eases backward pressure on the jaw. 🔄 Step 2: Mobilize the upper back If your upper back stays rounded, chin tucks alone won’t fix it—you’ll just feel pressure in the same spot. Grab a band, step the leg forward on the side you’re rotating toward, and rotate your entire chest and spine. Focus on full upper-body rotation, not just moving the arm. We’re restoring mobility where stiffness is feeding tension upward. 🔥 Step 3: Restore hip extension If your hips are stuck forward, you’ll compensate through your lower back when trying to stand upright. Place one leg on a stability ball, kick back, and return with control. Keep your belly tight so you don’t arch excessively. At the end of the movement, squeeze your glute. This helps you stand tall without overloading your spine, and reduces the forward pull through the entire chain. When you improve alignment from hips to upper back to neck, you decrease the mechanical stress feeding into your jaw. The jaw is often the last place you feel it—not the first place it starts. If you’re not sure what’s contributing to your symptoms, take the quiz and let’s pinpoint the root cause. #tmjpain #jawpain #posturecorrection #neckpainrelief #upperbackmobility #fixyourposture

Do you have ongoing jaw tension, or pain along with difficulty swallowing or a lump in the throat? Or maybe your throat is just tight? Well, the floor of the mouth has a primary role of elevating the high bone which creates a stable base for the tongue to do its job. The floor of the mouth has one muscle in particular that were focusing on called the Mylohyoid. When this muscles in spasm not only does the tongue have difficulty doing its job you may have noticed difficulty swallowing (pills for example) or a sensitive gag reflex. But also you feel throat tension commonly described as a lump in throat. Jaw pain is also a common complaint. In this video, I show how to release the muscle and then how to activate it so you can begin functioning again. After getting here at the site of the issue, we need to look at the bigger picture and see why that muscle was getting tight in the first place that’s where the root cause quiz comes in handy. #tmj #tmd #myofunctionaltherapy #dentist #tonguetie #neckpain #tmjtreatment #neckpainrelief #mylohyoid #tongue

👉 Jaw pain right in front of the ear or under the cheekbone? If opening your mouth, chewing, or even talking sets off that sharp ache on one side of your jaw, the issue may not be your teeth — it may be a deep jaw muscle called the medial pterygoid. 💡 What’s happening The medial pterygoid sits underneath your jaw and helps close your mouth. When it gets overactive or tight, it can create pain along the jawline and into the face. Most people try stretching randomly; but if you don’t fatigue it first, it tightens right back up. 🔥 Step 1: Fatigue the muscle Place your finger on the painful side. Open your jaw diagonally toward the opposite side. As you close your mouth, gently resist with your finger. This fatigues the medial pterygoid so it’s ready to actually let go. 🧠 Step 2: Stretch with resistance Now gently resist as you open your mouth and hold. This creates a targeted stretch to the medial pterygoid — the muscle often responsible for that deep jaw ache. The key is fatiguing first, THEN stretching. That’s what helps the muscle finally release instead of snapping right back. Try it and let me know: does your jaw feel lighter or easier to open after? #jawpain #tmjrelief #tmjexercises #physicaltherapy #neckandjaw #painrelief

Do you have pain right here in your jaw… plus ear pressure, sinus pain, throat tension, or even sensitive teeth or gums? This one hidden muscle could be causing all of it. The medial pterygoid sits deep on the inside of your jaw. It helps close your mouth during chewing and talking. When it becomes tight or irritated, it can refer symptoms into the 👂 ear, 😖 sinuses, 😬 throat, and even 🦷 teeth and gums. 🛠️ Step 1: Activate the muscle Close your mouth gently against the resistance of your fingers. Repeat this several times to wake the muscle up. 🛠️ Step 2: Side-to-side resistance Next, resist your jaw shifting left and right. This is another key action of the medial pterygoid, and we’re intentionally fatiguing it to prep for release. 🛠️ Step 3: Release from inside the mouth Using a clean finger inside your cheek, locate the muscle along the inner jaw. Apply gentle pressure and slowly stroke up and down, or hold on a tender spot until it softens. 🛠️ Step 4: Stretch it fully Open your mouth and shift your jaw toward the side of your pain. Since this muscle normally closes the jaw and shifts it the opposite way, this gives it a full stretch for a deeper release. These steps can be a game changer for easing those symptoms. But if this keeps coming back, we still need to identify what’s driving the tension in the first place. #tmj #tmjdisorder #tmd #jawpain #earpressure

Do you experience Jaw Pain? Maybe it feels like your tongue or throat or just tight? And does the pain even radiate down to your neck or shoulder? Well, there’s a muscle that connects all of it and it’s called the Omohyoid. This muscle goes from the shoulder blade through a fascial sling and up to the hyoid bone, making it one of the most important connections in the region. So when the muscle is tight, it can pull the shoulder blade forward and up, and it can pull the hyoid bone down. The hyoid bone has direct connection to the floor of the mouth and the tongue so we can really create a mess. In this video, I show you a simple stretch to release the muscle on one side and don’t forget to do it on the other side. You can either do a longer stretch for a hold or once you’re in the stretch position, you can take several deep breaths, and then relax and complete several rounds of this. Give it a try! #tmj #tmd #neckpain #neckpainrelief #tmjdisorder #tmjtreatment #jawpain #tmj #dental #dentistry #headaches