Cranial Sacral Therapy
TMJ and My Journey

By Lily Corley, LMP, CST

As a practitioner of Cranial Sacral therapy and as a Temporomandibular joint disorder patient, I have spent much time assessing and understanding how self healing relates to TMJ dysfunction. Cranial Sacral therapy uses a small amount of pressure, like the weight of a nickel, to hold various positions to foster unwinding and releases throughout the cranial sacral system, allowing the body to self correct.

I began my journey with cranial sacral almost a decade ago. I had a strange popping-click in my jaw that resonated and echoed in my head.  My quest embodied my search for a ‘cure’ for my TMJ. Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD or TMD), or TMJ syndrome, is an umbrella term covering acute or chronic inflammation of the temporalmandibular joint, which connects the mandible to the skull. Symptoms associated with TMJ disorders may include: Biting or chewing difficulty or discomfort; clicking, popping, or grating sound when opening or closing the mouth; dull, aching pain in the face; earache; headache; jaw pain or tenderness of the jaw; reduced ability to open or close the mouth; and tinnitus.

After visiting an orthodontist, I soon found a dead end. The DDS took some X-rays, gave me a brochure and said “you’ll need braces and surgery” for a fat price tag of $25,000 that I didn’t have. I didn’t have health care or a dentist, for that matter. After I brought up the possibility of alternative therapies at the next orthodontist, he casually dismissed the idea. I left feeling let down and hopeless, yet my mind was clear. I needed to find an alternative way to resolve my TMJ.

Still my stress began to amplify and as my anxiety grew, so did the popping and clicking in my jaw.
Soon after this experience, I spent a weekend working as a chef at Lost Valley Education Center, in Dexter, Oregon. During this workshop, one of the assistants was a Cranial Sacral practitioner who was going to demonstrate some techniques to some other massage therapists. She asked me to be her demonstration model. I gladly agreed and for the following two nights I laid in a deep, relaxed, alpha state on her table. I felt like Rip Van Winkle; I lost myself in a deep slumber or state. And the clicking and popping went away. Suddenly a direction to my quest formed; there was a way.

Over the next few years my journey took a few detours but I found myself in Santa Fe, New Mexico studying cranial-sacral therapy. I worked with a biological dentist. She removed my mercury fillings and discussed my malocclusions. Also during this time frame, I received structural integration treatments, engaged in Pilates, yoga, cardiovascular exercise, and worked with an osteopath. By the time I decided to leave and go to massage school in Hawaii, I had changed the structure of my temporal-mandibular joint. My biological dentist, Ieva Wright, pronounced me ready for the next phase, the realignment of my bite.

Through my personal experience, a few things became clear to me about my TMJ.  There was no one cause. Key aspects that affect the TMJ joint include stress, emotional issues, physical trauma such as whiplash, malocclusion of teeth, compression of cranial sutures, lack of core strength, and poor posture due to sedentary life style. Creating stability required a multiple pronged approach. Just getting massage or going to the chiropractor was not enough. I also gained a perspective that was open to western medicine as long as it was an integrated approach.

The number one issue with my jaw is stress. The greater the amount of stress I have in my life, the greater the discomfort in my jaw joint. Nothing soothes me more than dancing the night away or a bodywork session where I can take my body off the rack of day-to-day life and let it release. That is what happened when I first got on that cranial sacral table - I entered a very deep state of relaxation where I could let go the tension in my jaw. Emotions such as anger and fear of speaking the truth often manifest in clenching and grinding. When we feel truly free to speak our selves and to allow freedom of expression, we often feel looser and more relaxed.

Whiplash and car accidents can seem so minor until years later when we develop symptoms we can’t explain, like a stiff neck, a bad back, or frozen shoulder.  Often when unwinding the area of trauma, a client will begin to recount the story of what happened years ago. Unwinding is the process in which the body moves in its own pattern to release energy that is stuck or held.

The teeth are more than just our mastication station, but an integral part of our physical structural system. As they come together they should create a stable fulcrum upon which other joints such as the atlas (C-1) and the axis (C-2) work in concert with. A malocclusion - when the bite does not fit together on either side of the mouth - creates a shift and a tilt in the cranium. The malocclusion often requires integrating therapies
with a knowledgeable orthodontist, a Cranial Sacral therapist and orthopedic specialist. The irony is that many TMJ issues are created - or negatively impacted - by orthodontia and through many long stressful hours in the dental chair.

Through an integrated approach, which honors the whole body from the ground to the sky, TMJ challenges are manageable and eventually resolved. We truly have the power to be our own Healers. When Cranial Sacral is integrated with other therapies and exercise approaches, an integrative and dynamic course of movement and change occurs, facilitating long-term changes in the TMJ structure. At the end of the day, we want to feel pain free and live a wholistic and fulfilling life. We want to minimize stress from the financial, emotional, and cultural implications of our daily lives, and create time for the things we love.

Finding hope is often like planting a seed that grows into a gorgeous plant that provides medicine, food, and many more seeds. Cranial Sacral therapy was a precious seed in my life that is now in full bloom.