Notice any contact your teeth make. Also notice if you're clenching, grinding, gritting, tapping your teeth or tensing your jaw muscles.

Notice when these tooth contacts or when jaw muscle tensing most often occurs, such as during driving, studying, reading, social situations, conversation, fatigue, overwork, stress, emotional upsets, work, sports.

AVOIDING JAW ISSUES

Position your jaw to avoid tooth contacting habits: Place the tip of your tongue just behind your top front teeth and keep your teeth slightly apart. Keep this position whenever you're not using your jaw.

Modify your diet: Eat softer foods and avoid eating hard foods. Soft foods place less stress on the jaw muscles and joints than coarser foods. Coarse, hard foods require you to bite into them with the front teeth, such as apples or sandwiches. Cut these foods up into small pieces and eat them on the back teeth. Don't chew gum or soft chewy foods that require excessive jaw movements.

Avoid opening your jaw wide: Excessively moving your jaw places stress on the joints and muscles.

Don't test your jaw: When you move your jaw to the point where you feel pain and discomfort, you've added to the stress on your muscles and joints and this can cause continuation of the problems you are trying to eliminate.

Keep up good sleep patterns: Avoid sleeping on your stomach, which puts pressure on your jaw. Avoid sleeping with your jaw resting on your hand or arm, which also puts pressure on your jaw.

Support your jaw during yawning: Place your index finger and thumb on our chin to provide some extra stability to the lower jaw when you yawn.

Avoid leaning: Avoid leaning on your chin or jaw at any time – even holding your head to press a telephone against your shoulder.

RELIEVING JAW PAIN OR DISCOMFORT

Your teeth are supposed to make contact during eating and swallowing, but at no other time. When your jaw isn't working during eating, swallowing, yawning and talking, your teeth should be apart and your jaw should be at rest.

• ›  Apply moist heat to the area of discomfort twice a day for 10 minutes each time.
• ›  Keep rested and eat well.
• ›  Try to avoid additional stressful commitments.
• ›  Take a mild analgesic like ibuprofen (Advil) if your physician says it's safe for you to do so.

Contact us at Croydon Dental to book an appointment to get relief for your jaw pain or discomfort.