How Your Airway and TMJ are Related (Video)

Hi, friends. Today I want to speak to you about how airway and TMJ are related.

So, the airway is the nose. You breathe through the nose, back of the throat and down. Now, TMJ is your jaw joint in here. Your jaw joint is what connects the top of the head and your jaw together and they’re very important because your airway is through the nose, which is on top of the teeth, and then your bottom airway is right underneath your jawline, right over here. So your entire face, your airway, is all connected through the mouth and we need to make sure that your airway always is open, because you need one thing to live with, and that is called air. If you have no air, you’re not alive. Eight minutes is all you have, and that’s it, and we’re finished, right? We’re declared brain dead. So, really important for you to notice. That airway is critical.

What we find sometimes is that if the airway is compromised, meaning that you’re not able to nose breathe, or if your tongue is too big, falls back, or there’s not enough space in the airway to begin with, or if you have sleep apnea because it’s genetic, you’re going to be compromising the amount of air that you have.

And what your body will do, because it’s an unconscious response, is grind your teeth. It is going to try to move that jaw around to increase that airway. Because when I move the jaw, I actually make the airway bigger and that’s what it’s going to focus on and so the airway and TMJ are always related. And especially when you’re unconscious at night, your body is going to be doing this for hours and hours and hours, and sometimes you find yourself waking up with a sore jaw, or a sore TMJ, or headaches, or restless leg syndrome. All of these things are connected. So, give us a call and let us help you.