can be translated across all of the body including the neck and the jaw.  The goal is to differentiate what tissue is causing your brain to tell you that it is hurting and to understand the underlying causes.  Then we can apply the correct stimulus for the tissue to heal while addressing the reasons that it is not functioning well.  When it comes to the neck, the tissues that are causing problems can range from the collagen of the disc, ligaments, and/or tendons to the articular cartilage of the joints between the vertebra or the nerves that course through and between the vertebra.  The onset of pain from damage to these tissues may come from events as sudden as a car wreck or as subtle as waking up with a “crick” in your neck.  These events would be impacted by whether or not you have proper motion in between your vertebra.  We are skilled as manual therapists to assess this mobility and address any dysfunction with hands-on techniques.  We follow up the hands-on work with appropriate exercises that continue to give the tissue the stimulus it needs to heal while engaging the muscles, which insure proper movement of the system.

Many experience issues with the Temporo-Mandibular Joint (TMJ).  We strive to use the same approach in the address of the neck.  In fact, part of the assessment for jaw issues is to take a look at how the neck is functioning because it will affect the position of the head, which impacts the position of the TMJ.  We will also look at how the TMJ is moving and address the muscles and the joints with hands-on work.  Making sure that the muscles are working properly will be the focus of exercises as they are vital to the complex movement of the jaw.