Faulty proprioception is often the culprit in chronic TMJ disorders.

If you’re among those who have been unfortunate enough to suffer with jaw problems, you know how annoying and sometimes how downright painful it can be. The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is the joint that connects your jaw to the rest of your head. There are two TMJs—one on each side—and if they don’t work in unison it can make basic daily activities like talking and chewing a miserable experience. What’s more, these TMJ disorders can be difficult to resolve, and many who deal with them end up with chronic jaw pain that progresses over time.TMJ

In my practice I find that a great many of the patients I see who have problems like spinal pain, vertigo and migraines related to their atlas alignment, also suffer with chronic TMJ disorders—and it’s no coincidence. The same dysfunction that contributes to these seemingly unrelated problems can also prevent the jaw from opening and closing in a normal manner. To understand why this occurs you need to consider two crucial concepts that affect the way your body moves: tensegrity and proprioception.

The skeletal framework of your body (including the jaw) is held together by muscles, tendons and ligaments—all of which have a certain tone that creates varying degrees of tension and compression between the moving skeletal components. The balance created by this tension and compression is called tensegrity, and this is what creates your body posture. Your awareness of this posture (which can be both conscious and subconscious) is called proprioception. If you close your eyes and turn your head to one side, you should be able to take your finger and touch the tip of your nose. How does your finger know where your nose is even when your eyes are closed? It’s your proprioceptive sense that creates this awareness between all the different parts of your body. Without the proper muscular tension and compression between the parts of your body, your proprioceptive sense won’t be accurate (which is why some people have balance and coordination problems).

Body ImbalanceYour proprioceptive system ensures that your head, shoulders and pelvis are level and balanced, and it does this by sending signals to the muscles that create the appropriate levels of contraction and relaxation. There are several primary proprioceptive areas in your body that have a significant influence on regulating your proprioceptive system, but chief among them is the occipito-atlantal junction—that’s the area where your head connects to the first bone in your neck (the atlas). A misalignment at this occipito-atlantal junction causes your proprioceptive system to malfunction. The resulting imbalance between muscular contraction and relaxation will especially affect the pelvis and the rest of the spine, but often it will also cause an imbalance in other areas like the jaw.

So if you’re suffering with TMJ problems, take a look in the mirror: is your head tilted slightly to one side? Is one shoulder lower than the other? One side of your pelvis higher than the other? Any one of these signs is likely to indicate a proprioceptive problem that’s affecting the fluid operation of your TMJ. The good news is that if proper alignment between the head and the atlas is restored, your proprioceptive system can “reboot” and the normal balance between muscular contraction and relaxation will return.

Restoring the correct alignment between the head and the atlas is our sole focus at Rumsey Spinal Care. We do this with a safe, gentle procedure known as NUCCA. If you suspect that your difficulties might be related to your atlas alignment, please don’t hesitate to call us. We’ll do our best to see if we can help.

Anthony Rumsey
Anthony Rumsey
Dr. Anthony Rumsey lives and practices chiropractic in Anchorage, Alaska. You can contact Dr. Rumsey via the contact form or by handwritten letter.