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Soft Tissue Therapies
Common signs of early TMJ are: headache and facial pain, impaired jaw mobility, and clicking. Several muscles are involved with the movement of the temporomandibular joint, but the digastric muscle, masseter and lateral pterygoid muscles have been suggested as the most important. There are many soft tissue techniques that have been proven to work which are: active release technique, hyoid mobility treatment, TMJ mobilization, spinal manipulative therapy, and digastrics facilitation. Active Release Technique is done to evaluate the texture, tightness, and movement of the face muscles. Hyoid mobility treatment is done by having the patient lay on their back and the slack taken out on the hyoid bone by pushing lateral to medial in both directions until resistance is encountered. TMJ mobilization is done passively by taking out the slack and rotating the joint in a figure eight like motion. Adjusting the C1-C2 with rotation of the neck does spinal manipulative therapy. Patients are also required to continue digastrics facilitation exercise and chin tucks at home two to three times daily. Digastrics facilitation exercises done by isometric facilitation are done by placing the tongue on the roof of the mouth while opening the jaw. Chin tucks can be done by relaxing the jaw, slowing pushing the chin, and holding for a few seconds. Patients suffering from TMJ should have improvements of opening their mouth within a month after treatment.