Exercises

To relax before going to bed: Muscular tensions occur when the lower and upper jaws are pressed against each other. This usually happens at night while the stress of the day is being processed. An effective measure to reduce the phenomenon of clenching or grinding of teeth is relaxation.

To do this, you should take a few minutes each day before going to bed to let the events of the day pass. It is a good idea to air out your bedroom properly before the following exercise, turn off electronic devices and get yourself ready for bed. This way you can go to bed without any detours after the exercise.

Make yourself comfortable, close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing first. Once you have found a calm breathing rhythm, you will mentally live through your day. Start with getting up, through breakfast, the working day, the evening and your evening activities.

Have you had stress? Have you had positive experiences? Try to pack your worries in a box and put them aside for the night.

Finish your exercise with a positive thought. Take three more deep breaths and go to bed. Effective relaxation exercises are also “Autogenic Training” and “Progressive Muscle Relaxation“.

To loosen the muscles: Sit on a chair without backrest and try to sit upright. Try to feel if muscle tension is present. In CMD, in addition to the jaw joint muscles themselves, the neck muscles are often tense.

To stretch the neck, move your chin towards your sternum until you feel a pull on the neck and possibly the back of your head. It is essential that you remain seated upright, otherwise you will not be able to stretch the muscles correctly. To stretch the lateral neck muscles, tilt your head to the side, bringing your ear closer to the shoulder on the same side.

Remain seated upright and actively pull the fingertips of the other side towards the floor to keep the shoulder deep. To loosen the jaw muscles themselves, attach your tongue to the palate and slowly lower your lower jaw. The mouth is now slightly open.

Starting from here, slowly open and close your mouth. Do the exercise only in the pain-free area and try to “drop” the lower jaw bit by bit. Besides active exercises you can also try to massage your muscles yourself.

To do this, place your hands on the side of the lower jaw and perform slow circular movements with gentle pressure. You can use the same procedure on the right and left temples. Feel for yourself how much pressure is good for you. You can find more exercises in the articles:

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