Jaw tension, anxiety and Traditional Chinese Medicine

Anxiety, like all other emotions, is nothing that is “good or bad”, but rather a way of reacting to a certain way of seeing of understanding life.  If you were to take advantage of this message, it could be a great messenger for you to understand things that you didn’t understand about yourself.  Yet, whenever you don’t know what exactly to do with anxiety, or how to treat it, then it could influence and control your reactions, and cause exhaustion, both physical as well as mental.

What causes anxiety?

Anxiety is characterized by intermittent of constant episodes, defined as pathological fear that is related to a feeling of wanting to control everything, of not trusting in oneself nor in life’s process, inflexible thoughts and emotional rigidity.

Mandible tension syndrome and anxiety

One of the disorders caused by anxiety and that truly could be very problematic is mandible tension syndrome, which causes a series of severe consequences, like mandible pain, limitation of oral opening, premature wear on teeth and molars, premature loss of dental pieces, mandible noises when opening and closing the mouth, etc.  Other habitual symptoms related are headaches, dizziness, vertigo, cervical rigidity, etc.

Decrease anxiety: decrease mandible tension

One of the foundations of Traditional Chinese Medicine is the psychic component (psychic-emotional) in physiology and the body’s behavior.  This healing alternative treats the individual holistically and not just the physical symptom or the body, which is the way in which the West is used to treating bodily problems and concealing, denying, or hiding emotional imbalances or weaknesses.

Both excessive and lacking energy create interior disharmonies that slowly cause disorders.  This lacking or excessive energy circulates through the organs and systems and start causing certain behaviors, of which, the following stand out: excessive worry, obsessions, fixated ideas, memories that cannot be erased or that continually resurface, preventing living deeply the intensity of the present moment, etc.

One of the ways to start treating anxiety that causes mandibular tensions is by starting to harmonize your lifestyle.  Cultivate your emotional understanding.  For example, releasing angry emotions is very recommendable because this area usually accumulates a lot of tension when you don’t say or release what you feel.  In order to do so, you don’t need to run around yelling or “roaring” like a lion all over town.  It’s important that you take responsibility for your own emotions and that you liberate them with intimacy that can give you feedback on what you feel by means of reflection.

Not saying what you truly feel, or trying to control a lot of emotions, causes too much tension and anxiety and is the root of tense mandible syndrome.

Other methods of reducing anxiety and tension for curing mandibular pain are:

• Gently enunciating vowels out loud (saying vowels by opening your mouth wide).
• In a room or whenever you can be by yourself, imagine standing in front of whomever you would like to say something to, and just let it come out without controlling your jaw or the words that leave your mouth.  You need to speak strongly and clearly.
• Give yourself a facial massage concentrating on the joint area of the jaw.
• Opening your mouth as if you needed to yawn, several times a day.
• Simulate crying.
• Sing a song loudly, clearly pronouncing each word.

Read about anger in order to understand it.  Anger is an emotion that speaks of how demanding you are with other and with yourself, or of how much you expect to get from them and from life.  For starters, you could stop criticizing yourself, or stop trying to please others, or to live under the burden of social stereotypes.  You also shouldn’t think too much, and avoid competitive environments.

Considering diet…

Diet is undoubtedly another energetic component that causes reactions in the body.  Eating poorly or consuming excessive refined sugar or junk food brings truly harmful consequences to the nervous system.  So if you want to reduce your anxiety, we recommend a diet in which you include foods like steamed vegetables, plenty of water, avoid sodas and processed foods or sugary foods that only contains toxins for the body and which alter the nervous system.

Revised by: Dra. Loredana Lunadei on 10/08/2022

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