The temporomandibular joints (TMJ) connect your jaw to your skull, just in front of each ear — and they're among the most heavily used joints in your body. When they or the muscles around them become dysfunctional (clinicians call it TMD, temporomandibular disorder), the result is jaw pain, clicking, restricted opening, and often headaches and ear symptoms that get chased around to the wrong specialists for years. Our TMJ specialists — physical therapists, chiropractors, and pain physicians working as one team — diagnose and treat TMD without surgery.
Every clinic below has Chiropractic, Physical Therapy, Acupuncture and Pain Management on one chart, so care can move between them without a new referral.
Downtown out through the north, west, south and east suburbs.
Academy, InterQuest and Tenderfoot cover the north, central and south of the city.
Harmony in Fort Collins and our Greeley clinic serve Larimer and Weld counties.
Across the Valley, from the West Valley through Phoenix to the East Valley.
Jaw pain or tenderness, clicking or popping with opening and closing, locking, limited mouth opening, pain with chewing, ear pain or fullness without infection, and headaches — often temple headaches worse in the morning (a clue for nighttime clenching or grinding).
Most TMD is muscular: overworked chewing muscles from clenching and grinding, often stress-related. Joint-based causes include disc displacement within the joint (the common source of clicking) and arthritis. Neck dysfunction is a frequent accomplice — the neck and jaw share nerve pathways, and upper-neck problems can drive or mimic TMJ pain, which is exactly why a clinic that treats both does well with it.
Painless clicking alone is common and often needs no treatment. Clicking with pain, locking, or reduced opening deserves evaluation.
Yes — TMD is a well-known driver of temple headaches and ear symptoms. Treating the jaw and neck together is often what finally works.
Rarely surgery. Most TMD improves with conservative care; a dentist-fitted night guard helps some patients, and we'll coordinate if so.
No. You can request an evaluation directly in Colorado or Arizona.
No. We treat the joint, the muscles around it and the neck that so often drives it. If a night guard or a bite issue is part of the picture, that is a dentist's job and we will say so rather than working around it.
Because the two are mechanically linked. Posture and neck muscle tension change how the jaw loads, and treating the jaw alone is a common reason TMD keeps coming back. See neck pain.
Hands-on work on the jaw and neck muscles, exercises you do at home, and habit changes around clenching, chewing and sleep position — normally through Physical Therapy and Chiropractic, with Pain Management involved if the pain is not settling.
Most people notice a change within a few weeks when they do the home exercises. Long-standing clenching takes longer, because the habit has to change alongside the tissue.
Jaw pain and TMD are treated at every Mountain View Pain Center clinic in Colorado and Arizona — see the full clinic map, Colorado or Arizona.
