Living in the fast paced world of Bellevue Washington, stress is a common part of our day. Job stress, family stress, traffic stress, and name it stress is hard to get away from. In my office I see a lot of the physical results from stress. One of the physical manifestations of stress that I see on a daily basis with my patient is TMJ.

What is TMJ you ask? I glad you asked! Your TMJ is your “temporal mandibular joint”. A more accurate name would be TMJD or temporal mandibular joint dysfunction. Simply put it pain in your jaw. Causes of TMJ include but are not limited to injuries like car accidents, dental problems, and possibly even clenching of the teeth from stress.

TMJ is a very common condition in my practice and I have found that if misalignment’s of the jaw are found and corrected it goes a long ways in helping to heal TMJ.

I utilize a very gentle technique to help create normal function in the jaw.The next step is re-balancing the tight muscles so the problem does not come back. For this I use simple a home exercises. If you have TMJ and have found no cure it may be time to see a chiropractor. The testimonial below is from one of my many patients who have found relief while under my care.

“I have had pain from my misaligned jaw (TMJ) for years and years. I have tried mouth guards, massage, been to different doctors, stretching, etc. Nobody can help and they all refer me to oral surgeons (who want to break your jaw) but no insurance companies, medical or dental will cover anything to do with TMJ and even most doctors cringe and run away at the mere mention of it. I never thought Chiropractic treatments could help this sort of thing, but eventually out of desperation asked Dr. Weir if there was anything he could do. After our session I had no more pain and was able to fully open my mouth without it clicking or my joint popping out of place for the first time in over 10 yrs! – (plus, so far it’s staying that way without falling right back out of place). He was more informative on things I can do to help reverse the damage (without surgery) than ANY of the “specialists” I have seen. I should also mention that he has a fantastic staff and the office is super comfortable. For the first time in a looong while, I feel hopeful that I won’t have to live with this pain for the rest of my life. – thank you Dr. Weir!!! – C.B.”

Doctor Michael Weir is a local bellevue chiropractor. To contact his office, call 425-635-0495 .