Jaw Tension - Where Is It Coming From?

In this podcast we take a closer look at how to know where the tension in your jaw might be coming from. This could be a foundational point such as putting in tongue in the incorrect resting position, or a habit/part of your lifestyle.

We hope you find the information useful and sparks your intrest to do further research into healing the jaw holistically.

All the best,
The Kieferfreund Team

Transcript

Hello everybody,

Welcome to our little podcast today.

And today we will talk about how to know where your jaw tension comes from.

I'm joined by Julia Buritz,

The founder of Keepa Finds.

Hi Felix.

And yeah,

Today we're going to dive in to really put the magnifying glass on knowing where the tension comes from and how you can know a little bit more about it.

Julia,

You've been working in this field for over 10 years now.

So I assume you have some insight for us on how people can know where the tension is coming from.

Yeah.

So there are some practical tips which I want to share with you.

The first thing and the most important thing is to know where is your tongue resting position.

So you need to see or to feel where is the tip of your tongue,

Where is the back part of your tongue,

Where are the side parts of your tongue.

And if it doesn't rest on your palate,

For example,

It's connected to your teeth or it lies down on the mouth of your floor,

It's very often that your problems are coming from this wrong tongue resting position.

So that's the first thing.

You need to know where is your tongue.

So if it's not the whole tongue on the palate,

There is something to do.

The second thing is to see how are you breathing.

How you're breathing,

What's your breathing mode?

Are you breathing through your nose or more through your mouth?

How is this in your daily life?

How is this when you're sleeping?

Some people tend to mouth breathe only when they are sleeping,

But as I saw it in the past years,

There is also some mixed breathing also for them who think they are breathing through the nose only in the daytime.

They also breathe through the mouth because everything we are doing in the daytime,

We do at night.

So we need to change it in the daytime and then we can change it in the night because that's a question which we always get.

How can I have an influence on my functions when I'm sleeping?

So you basically change it during the day,

Right?

I was actually really trying to observe this not too long ago,

How I breathe during the day.

And I always thought I breathe through the nose always because I meditate a lot and I focus a lot on nose breathing.

But when I was really aware of it,

I noticed that quite often in the day,

I would take like a big breath through the mouth.

And yeah,

That was really,

Really interesting.

That's very good that you say this because also when we're doing a lot of meditation bodywork,

We're not aware of this because we are so used to this breathing.

And this needs to be very,

Very detective and to see how are you breathing.

Yeah.

And you can see when you don't feel comfortable with the nose breathing in the daytime,

Your body won't ever breathe through the nose when you're sleeping because it feels like you don't get enough air.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that's the second thing.

What's the secret then just to breathe more through the nose until it feels comfortable?

Exactly.

Just do it.

Do it,

Do it,

Do it again,

Again,

Again.

Yeah.

So at least 21 days.

And then this new habit,

Which is a habit,

Is automated.

So your body kind of learns that actually,

If I'm breathing through my nose,

I'm still surviving and actually I'm doing really fine.

Exactly.

And also the airways through your nose are getting larger when you use it.

The more you use it,

The wider it gets.

The less you use it,

Then you lose it.

And I guess also stress,

Right?

Mouth breathing can be linked to stress as well.

But yeah,

Stress levels in general are very,

Very important.

Yeah.

So when you I would I would invite you to just ask yourself very,

Very fast.

How high is your stress level?

So on a scale from zero to 10,

Zero is no stress.

10 is the most the most or the highest experienced stress you ever felt.

So just very,

Very fast in one,

Two,

Three seconds.

Just say,

How much stress do you have in your daily life?

And when you have more than five,

I would work on this.

Because that's that's some some idea that we need stress in our life to be successful or something like that.

But maybe we should have a look on this if it's really true for us,

If we need it.

Yeah,

I mean,

Stress can come from a range of things,

Right?

It can be the pressure professionally,

But also something happening around us or argument with a neighbor that's ongoing or anything like that.

And if we score highly,

Then we know,

OK,

There's something to look at here and something to to reframe and and work through.

Exactly.

Exactly.

We need to see it.

Because our body,

Whatever our body experiences,

It always reacts to it in some way.

Right.

We don't just have the level eight stress and have the level eight stress.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's always a consequence.

The jaw is the most most sensitive sensor for stress,

Because as soon as you have stress,

Your jaw is clenching and getting more tensed.

You can't change this.

That's a normal body reaction to protect you,

To protect your brain,

Because that's a very old body reaction to protect your brain.

Yeah,

There is more tension in your muscles and fascia to get some kind of.

Panza.

I don't know the English word.

Panza.

It's a very nice German word,

But it's like like a shell,

Essentially,

Like a turtle has a shell around it.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And we need to relieve this shell.

Yeah,

And of course,

Habits is a very important topic.

So when you have habits in your jaw area,

Your your system might be overwhelmed with this habit when you,

For example,

When you chew a lot your gum or you bite on your lips a lot or you move your jaw to the front all the time.

So this is very sensitive,

A very sensitive system which can easily get out of balance.

Yeah.

So another tip which I had is to look at your eating and have a look on this if you are chewing on both sides or if you prefer one side.

And if you do prefer one side,

Then you should start to use both sides for your chewing process.

What would it mean if I prefer one side?

Yeah,

There's too much muscle action in one side and therefore there's no balance.

Right.

So could that alone be a cause of jaw tension?

It could.

It could.

It could,

Especially when we really use only one side and never go to the other side.

For example,

When you have some some dental problems on one side and you don't want any turds and you don't want to use it and then you are used to it and then you keep it for many,

Many years,

Then you get a great muscle imbalance.

And we can start to restore that by,

As you said,

Chewing on both sides,

But also doing exercises that target the muscle with the jaw specifically.

Exactly.

Great.

Well,

That's very insightful.

And do you have anything else like things to avoid that we do on a daily basis or anything like that?

Yeah.

So one thing is which I see is always very much connected to to jaw tensions,

Especially when we're sleeping,

Is also a habit because when people,

For example,

Looking at watching TV before they go to sleep or they fall asleep while watching TV,

They they get lots of tension in the jaw.

Although they are not aware of it,

Because what's what's the thing?

A movie is interesting for you.

What makes it interesting?

A movie?

It's usually exciting or there's tension.

I mean,

Yeah,

Yeah.

Suspense.

Yeah.

You couldn't take a romantic film without any any excitement.

You want you want look,

Watch it here.

And that's the thing.

This these emotions and these tensions come through the television right into our bodies.

And then we take it into our bedrooms.

And that's what we don't want.

So I always recommend you have a break between watching TV and going to sleep from at least one hour.

Because to some extent,

Our body can't realize that it's not real.

What's going on in front of us.

Right.

It's like another reality that we're kind of zoomed into.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And you can use this one hour break for meditation,

For example,

For relaxing your jaw and doing exercises.

Yeah.

So so a good nighttime routine is quite important.

But is it the same for the morning?

Is there anything you would recommend for the mornings?

No,

So in the morning,

When you wake up in the morning and you have jaw tensions,

Then you know,

OK,

I have clenched and during night or grinded my teeth during night.

And therefore,

You should work on your evening routine to don't clench or don't grind during the night.

Yes.

Yeah.

Great.

Well,

Thank you very much,

Julia.

That was very insightful.

And I hope everyone listening gained something from it as well.

Thank you very much,

Felix.

Great.

Well,

Thank you,

Everyone,

For listening.

All the best and take care from us.

Bye bye.

Reviews

This was mind blowing! I’ve been through two courses of PT for my jaw and most of this was new information. And honestly it felt a little better after just a few minutes of tongue repositioning! 👅

You gave me some good ideas of why I'm still biting and my jawmuscles are troubling me. I've thought I was breathing through my nose, but no... and the fact that this problem started with my covid19 infection spring 2020 and breathing problems makes sense now. I'll keep on working. Thank you so much for your help 🙏💜

Very informative, thank you!