Forward Head/Forward Shoulders and TMJ related pain - TMJ Disorder -TemporoMandibular Joint Message Board

A. Polly · 11-20-2003, 12:26 PM

CVella brought up a good point in the cervical pain post below. Posture can play a critical role in TMJ related pain.

I had kyphosis as a kid (forward curve of the spine) and wore a brace to correct it. While my curve is just over the normal limits now and poses no real health threat, my head and shoulders tend to rest in a forward position. My job working at a computer doesn't help the situation.

A few weeks ago I found this link and feel it is a factor in my pain. I agree with CVella that postural strenghtening would help, but it hurts! I can't figure out how to get the pain to go away first so I can then strengthen. I had always read to not attempt to strengthen muscles that are in a stressed-out spasm-y state, but mine are always that way. Any suggestions? Do I just try to strengthen through the pain and hope it subsides as I get stronger or do I eliminate the spasms at any cost before strengthening?

A gripe...every doctor I mention this to seems to discount any correlation between jaw & neck pain and posture issues/spine curvature. My medical community resembles a wasteland. Grrr.

Thanks all.

[Edited to remove website with links to advertising.]

cvella · 11-21-2003, 09:56 AM

Hi A.Polly,
I started strengthening my neck and upper back even when my muscles were in spasm. The first week or two it almost made the pain worse but now it's starting to subside. I started off really slow and use only therabands to do strengthening (no weights). I do one to three sets of 15 reps with a theraband -- shoulder shrugs, seated row, wall push-ups, neck flexion (laying on back tucking chin). If my muscles are really in spasm I'll do only one set and stretch. If I'm feeling better I'll do more. The longer your muscles are in spasm the weaker they will get and sometimes you have to work slowly through it.
Good luck.