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Hi, I’m Markey and I will try anything…for a week. I noticed a few weeks ago that my jaw was constantly clenched and I was feeling a ton of pain from it. It got so bad that one day I could barely talk or eat. As soon as my ability to eat gets jeopardized, we have a problem.
When I looked it up, I found out that tight jaws and teeth grinding are often linked to anxiety. I decided while I might not be able to eradicate my anxiety, I could try to fix my jaw pain. One method to help jaw pain and teeth grinding is face yoga.
Face yoga is a fancy term for a facial massage/exercise that stimulates the sore and tight muscles in your face and jaw. You can also use face yoga to improve your skin, jawline, and erase your wrinkles. So I had to try this magical method!
So sit back, unclench your jaw, and try some face yoga with me for a week!
Day 1
I sat down on my yoga mat and did yoga…well, face yoga. I swear, I looked like a crazy person. That being said, I loved it. It felt great and I want to do it every day. My jaw often clicks whenever I open it too wide. It always has done this and I feel like it always will, but I noticed my jaw clicks got less frequent and less painful as I went along.
There were a few exercises that really hit home (the massages were the real winners), while the one that required me to hold my mouth open for a few minutes felt like it was only contributing to the pain. That being said, I did enjoy day one!
Day 2
I decided to go with the same guy from yesterday because a lot of face yoga videos I found on YouTube are to shape and lift your face.
It’s so relaxing to just take ten or so minutes out of my day to take care of my jaw. The reason my jaw is so often clenched is because I neglect to pay attention to it and take care of it. Face yoga is already starting to improve my pain and alleviate some of the discomfort.
Day 3
I know that there are more people online who do face yoga and I’ll probably move to the next one tomorrow. I didn’t love today’s session. I have a weird thing about touching my face and hair with my hands; I don’t love spreading that oil all over my face. In fact, I’m about to go wash my face because of it. The last few minutes of the exercise involved putting your fingers in your mouth, so I surely skipped that part. Oops!
The highlight of today was when my partner turned around, saw me, then hugged me for about 5 minutes. When he looked up and saw the guy on YouTube, he said, “Oh, you’re just doing face yoga…I thought you were having a mental breakdown”. So if you’re going to try this, warn your partner before you do.
Day 4
I said I would do today’s exercises with someone different and I have regrets. The yoga wasn’t bad — I do yoga every morning, this just wasn’t the best for my neck. It wasn’t hard yoga at all, it was just long and I didn’t feel like it helped my jaw.
That being said, I woke up today and my jaw felt better than it has for a while. I’m also trying to train myself to stop whenever I feel myself start to clench my jaw because that’s the best way to avoid jaw pain!
Day 5
I was stressed today for no reason, so I knew I needed to try another version of full body yoga. While the jaw massages did a better job of actually targeting the painful areas, fully relaxing yoga is really the move when I feel like this.
Full body yoga emphasizes that the neck, spine, and body are all attached to the jaw. It was a great reminder for me that if one part of my body isn’t relaxed, the rest of it will also be in a tizzy. I really appreciate these little moments when I can relax my entire body and take it easy.
Day 6
This was by far my favorite session I’ve done. While I touched my face a lot, it targeted everywhere I usually clench my jaw! The woman was really engaging on the video and explained exactly how to do everything and what you should look for and feel for throughout the exercise.
I felt much more relaxed and felt a definite difference between the before and after of the exercises. I’d recommend this video before all of the others!
Day 7
Y’all, this was a WORKOUT! I read somewhere that the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body (it actually isn’t, but it does come close), but that seemed very truthful today when I was pressing my tongue up against my soft palate. That technique is called “mewing” and I did it a lot last year. It improves your jawline and honestly transforms some people’s faces.
I stand by the last exercise as my favorite one, but this one was really nice too. The doctor who does these videos is really helpful and calming. He also explains why you’re doing the massages and exercises (and looking like a fool).
After a Week
Does my jaw still hurt? Yes. Do I still clench my teeth? Hold on…sorry, I had to unhinge my jaw now that I’m thinking about it. I’ll probably always struggle with a tight jaw in some way, shape, or form. I would love to not clench it as often as I do, but for right now, I want ways to combat the pain and to ease the tension.
I loved these face yoga sessions. My partner asked me yesterday how they were going and I gave the answer I always hope for: I will do these after this article is done. They didn’t magically heal my jaw in one week, but they did provide some much needed relief and healing to it.
Do you struggle with jaw pain? What’s helped you? What’s something I should try next? Comment below!
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Hi, Markey!
I enjoyed reading this post and I’m going to try your favorite video myself because of it. I see this was written quite a while ago, but just in case, I wanted to tell you that if your jaw is clicking, you almost certainly have TMD (which most people know as TMJ). My jaw clicked off and on since high school, but because it wasn’t all the time I didn’t think much about it. When I was 48 I learned what it was and also thar I had arthritis in my jaw from the clenching and grinding.Check if your insurance will pay for an exam and mouth guard (dental usually doesn’t but medical often does).
Thanks for your brilliant review and sense of humor. Cheers! -Luna