Jaw tension (Bruxism) is the term given to chronic tightening of the jaw muscles. Jaw tension can give you headaches, keep your partner awake at night as you grind your teeth and  generally give you a tight, angry looking face.

Gum chewing produces and worsens jaw tension, your jaw muscles (masseters) don’t need this sort of exercise. The masseters do need to be stretched though, regular stretching exercise can help alleviate jaw tension. Whenever you yawn your masseters stretch, exercises that mimic yawning are good for your jaws. Giving your jaw muscles some circular, mild massage with your finger tips, can help relax your masseters.

The most common cause of jaw tension seems to be stress related, getting angry about things, particularly things you feel constrained to talk about can trigger it. The next time you get really cross about something ask yourself if your jaws feel tight, until you make self observations like that you will not realise whether you react like this or not.

Worry, anxiousness and intense mental concentration can cause tension in the jaws too, our facial muscles react constantly to what is going on inside our heads. Alot of people adopt the strangest facial expressions when deeply engrossed in something, grimacing and frowning can happen for the same reason that  clenching does. Pained expressions can cause you pain (and they won’t make you look pretty either).

There are also those who party pretty hard and long with drugs like ecstacy, ice and speed, these drugs can cause alot of jaw tension. This cause of jaw tension can wreck your teeth while you are still young.

Jaw tension effects your voice too, particularly if your jaw tension has a restrictive effect on how wide you part teeth when you are talking. Speaking with a barely open mouth muffles the natural resonance of your voice, people have much more pleasant talking and singing voices when they do not suffer from jaw tension. Jaw tension causes one to mispronounce words more often too.

A dentist once told me that about half of all his patients suffered from jaw tension, apparently it is that common. With so many good reasons why it is better not to have jaw tension it is such a shame to put up with it when you don’t have too. Soft tissue therapies (osteopathy, massage, chiropractic, acupuncture ) can help loosen your jaws and speech therapy can help you retrain your jaw muscles by making you more aware of how you use them.

Jaw tension can give you the worst headaches and grinding your teeth in your sleep can create stress between you and your partner (and prematurely wear your teeth out). Some of the nicest and most tolerant people I have known are also the worst jaw tension sufferers because they hold it all in on the inside.

People who don’t care about offending others rarely seem to get jaw tension.