Jaw Pain & Fascia - What You Can Do

So today I'm joined by Julia Boritz and she has had 10 years of experience working with people who have jaw problems and she was self-affected by it herself.

So Julia,

How did you come to the fascinating topic of the fascia?

How did that happen?

Thank you very much Felix for welcome and I want to welcome all our attendees here in our webinar.

It's very very nice that you take this time for this topic.

So I've worked over 10 years as a SLP,

Speech and language pathologist and orofacial myologist and I've worked a lot with this area,

With the muscles and the functions.

And what I see is that many many people who have pain or other symptoms in the jaw area have problems with their fascia.

And this topic is very new,

There are not so many studies right now.

But what I saw in my daily practice and what I also saw by treating myself,

When you get healthy fascia,

The pain gets less and less and also the other symptoms like clicking sounds in your jaw joint reduces.

So the fascia is really a crucial point for a healthy jaw.

That's amazing.

And I think Aldous adds to our attendees,

You know,

What are the fascia exactly?

And I really like the explanation that you can look at it like a spider web that goes across your whole body.

So back in the days they looked at the skeleton and then you had the muscles and the organs just sitting on the skeleton.

That was the old model and more recently we've looked at the fascia,

The web actually covering everything and giving it stabilizing function.

Also separating between certain parts of our body and you know being literally from top to toe a network of connective tissue that runs across the whole body.

And I think very often the pain that we feel in the fascia because it's a network,

Right?

So we have a problem somewhere,

It can show up somewhere else.

It's not diagnosed by people who treat pain such as doctors because it doesn't show up on scans.

If you do an MRI scan or even if you cut it open these days or back in the day,

They saw the fascia and they just throw them in the bin.

Yes.

Because they thought it's not important.

Exactly,

Exactly.

But the fascia are very,

Very important.

That's what we see.

Many people know it from the sports,

From the gym also where they can have these black rolls where they all roll their fascia on the body.

And it's very,

In the training of the body training,

It's very effective to get a better regeneration and to prevent from injuries also.

And we always forget that the jaw area also has the fascia.

Exactly.

And they're all over the jaw,

Right?

Everywhere.

So under your skin,

You have fascia everywhere and it's really important the masseteri muscles to relax the fascia there and then connect it to the forehead and the neck.

There are everywhere functional connections in between the orofacial complex.

So you can never see the jaw area isolated.

You always need to think connected.

And that's why we can't relax the jaw without working on the tongue,

For example,

Or relax the jaw without working on the neck posture.

And that's why this is a holistic approach which we use in our work.

So,

For example,

With the app that Kiefer Freund designed,

We don't just do exercises for the jaw,

Right?

But we do the eyes,

Do the neck,

We do all of these parts because,

As you say,

They're very much connected.

Yes,

I think some of you already know Kiefer Freund and our Kiefer Freund app.

So we developed an app for relaxing the jaw.

There are many,

Many effective,

Over 60 effective exercises in the app where we shoot some really nice videos.

And you can just do this daily training program over 21 days and then you can relax your jaw with these exercises.

And the thing is,

We don't work only on the symptoms,

But we treat the root causes because there's always something like a disrupted balance in the jaw system.

And what we saw in the last few years is that our exercises work with the fascia as well.

It's not only the functional training for the muscles,

But it's also for the fascia.

What I think is fascinating as well is that you don't need to do these exercises the whole day.

What's enough is to target,

Let's say,

10 minutes,

15 minutes a day and to do those,

If you like to call them corrective exercises,

I don't know,

But do those exercises to really start to bring movement into areas.

Because the fascia always need the movement.

They always need the movement to stay healthy and to not stick together.

That's the point.

So two things that can happen to the fascia,

Right,

Is they can become hardened or they can become stuck together.

Maybe we should look at those two in turn.

We touched on sticking together already.

I would say that happens because there's not enough movement going on in a part of the body.

Yes,

There's not enough movement.

And then the fact is,

It's like when you have an injury in your arm,

You know,

And you don't move your arm,

Then there is the fascia stick together.

And then you are not able to move your arm as good as it was before.

All because of the fascia.

So when it sticks together,

There's lots of collagen.

Collagen is the English word,

Collagen.

There's a lot of production of this collagen and then you feel this hardened fascia.

And that is what brings the pain.

You can feel it in the jaw.

We will come later to this.

You can feel it in the jaw when it's hardened and it's really,

Really painful.

It's not only just the point where it's painful,

But it can spread out and make a lot of pain in lots of parts of the body.

For example,

When you have a scar somewhere in the body,

This can affect other parts of your body.

Because the whole network runs all over your body.

I also heard someone once say it's like a sweatshirt.

You know,

In the sweatshirt you have one thread that runs,

You know,

We have threads that run all over the sweatshirt,

Makes it connected and it's exactly the same thing with our fascia.

Yeah,

Exactly,

Exactly.

That's a great picture.

And as you said at first,

We are not aware of the functions of the fascia.

Because there's not only this stabilizing function and the connecting function,

But there's also this emotional function.

Because the fascia react to our emotions and feelings.

When we have stress,

The fascia contract.

Did you know this?

That's amazing.

It contracts without the muscles,

Independently.

When you feel very,

Very stressed,

You get jaw stress and the fascia gets really hard.

And is this a quick contraction or a slow contraction over time?

How can I think about that?

It's more a slow contraction,

Which stays over a long time.

The muscles are more like fast contraction and loosen up again.

And the fascia is more like contract slowly and then stay contracted.

That's what we feel when we get in some negative emotions or so.

We feel this contraction within the body.

And this is the fascia.

So if they've become contracted,

What can I do?

Is doing exercises a great thing to do?

Yes,

Of course.

So maybe we will come to this a little bit later.

At first,

It's interesting for our attendees how they can see if it's the fascia.

Which is meaningful in their jaw.

Because as you say,

You can't see it in the scan if the fascia is tense or stick together.

So you need to find it out by yourself.

And there are some things.

Did we touch on the hardening element as well?

The hardening element?

Right,

So it's like a protection mechanism.

Yeah,

Sure.

No,

We didn't.

We haven't yet.

So you can feel it.

This hardening,

You can say it's like an armor.

It's like an armor which protects yourself from further injuries.

That's why the fascia gets very hard.

And then it's like an armor.

It's a body armor.

And the result of that is,

However,

It's harder and it protects but the movement is restricted,

Right?

Sure,

Sure.

You can imagine the knights in the medieval times.

They have this armor on and they didn't get injuries but they couldn't move that easily.

They can't run 100 meters very quickly.

Exactly.

So that's a great picture of how you can see the fascia.

But it's all for the body,

Right?

It's all protection and it's all good.

But we need to know this.

We always say knowledge is for your health.

And when you know these things,

You can work on it.

And when you know that when you have stress or when you know that less movement hardens your fascia,

You can do something against it.

So what you're also saying is it's important not to look at the fascia as your enemy.

Oh no,

The hardened fascia,

But actually to see that they're there to help you,

To protect you.

You just need to understand how they work and then work with them.

Exactly,

Exactly.

And we talked about it a little bit earlier.

Many,

Many patients or clients who come to our consultations who have lots of pain in the jaw area have something like this temporal mandibular joint dysfunction.

They are very into this helplessness,

You know?

So they think these tensions and this pain is the enemy.

And that's the problem because this creates again lots of stress and then this other fascia reacts to the stress again.

So it's kind of circle,

You know,

And you need to get out of this circle.

And what I love about your approach as well is that you always focus on self responsibility so that people want,

You know,

They realize they have power and the change comes from them because they want to.

Yes,

Yes.

That's the main point.

I think that you take self responsibility and do it,

Even if it's very simple.

And it's very simple and easy,

But you have to do it.

Yeah,

It's also very easy not to do it,

Right?

Sometimes it's more easy not to do it.

So,

Julia,

How can if someone thinks they may have,

You know,

Fascia problems in the jaw,

How can they know that it's not a muscle problem or a joint problem?

How can they tell that it's actually the fascia causing the problem?

Yeah.

So there are three characteristics which we can say.

So you have to imagine there are some muscles in your jaw area.

And the muscles are here,

There are some masseter muscles,

Then here are the temporalis muscles,

And then there are some small muscles right before your joint.

And the fascia is also around the muscles.

So we can at first try to roll down with your hands and see if it's painful.

And if it's painful and you can feel some little knots and some hard knots,

This is the fascia.

Yeah,

This is the fascia.

That makes sense.

Yeah,

So when you roll down here or here in the temporalis area or even here in the joint area,

If it feels like the part under your skin hurts and there's the pain,

Then it's the fascia.

That's quite an easy way then to identify it.

Yeah,

Yeah.

And then if this is painful,

You should definitely do something to get your fascia back in a healthy state.

That's what we recommend.

The second thing is many,

Many people have some kind of relieving posture.

That happens when maybe you have a surgery operation in your jaw and then you weren't able to open your mouth or you are afraid that there will come more pain or you had a dental surgery or something like that.

And then you have this posture where you don't move your jaw.

That's very bad for the jaw.

So I had a patient,

She had very,

Very many problems with her teeth and therefore she didn't eat anything hard for at least I think three years.

She only drank smoothies and that's why she gained a lot more pain in her jaw area because this fascia needs to be moved.

And otherwise it gets stuck.

The jaw is a very,

Very powerful part of our body because when you think of this,

We eat and earlier and earlier times we need to fight with our teeth,

Breath.

We have to attack and that's why we can use it.

We should use it and we can bring lots of power in our jaw area.

So if you don't use it,

You lose it?

Yes,

Exactly.

To some extent.

You lose your mobility and your movement.

Then you can feel like you can't open your mouth that good.

And you have problems or difficulties when you gain it.

What's that in English?

When you yawn.

When you yawn,

Yes.

Or when you want to eat a burger and take a big bite.

So that's the second thing.

So kind of relieving posture.

And the third characteristic is that the pain is getting better when you move it,

When you move your jaw.

Many people say that when I chew a lot or when I eat or when I talk,

Then it gets better.

Then this is a characteristic that it is the fascia,

The pain is coming from the fascia.

So people may even be a little bit surprised,

Is that what you're saying?

People are surprised that when they actually use it,

It gets better?

Because they don't have necessarily the understanding that it may be the fascia.

Yes,

Exactly.

Because when you think of a muscle,

A muscle when you have some kind of dysfunction in your muscle.

Maybe you had a workout and then you have this musculicata.

I don't know the English word for musculicata.

Musculicata.

Basically your muscle is hurt after a long workout.

Yes,

Exactly.

So then when you try to move it,

It hurts more in the beginning.

It's the muscle which hurts.

And afterwards when you see,

Okay,

I move my jaw and it gets better,

Then it's the fascia.

Because when you move it,

You can imagine it like you squeeze a sponge.

You squeeze upon a sponge by massaging it or moving in a spring-like way.

Then all the liquids,

The fluids come out of the sponge.

And after you stop,

The sponge fills again with new liquid and fluids.

That's very important to change this liquid inside the fascia,

Inside the sponge.

And then it gets healthy again.

So for example,

If an area has become hardened,

You sort of drain the fluid and a new fluid comes through.

Is that what you're saying?

Yes,

That's it.

So what can we do if we identified it may be a fascial problem?

What are the things that we can do?

Maybe we've even had this for quite some time.

And where do we start?

What are some lifestyle hacks or direct things that we can do?

So the first thing which is very important is to drink water.

Drink water because the fascia needs water.

Not syrup or alcohol or soap,

It needs water.

And therefore,

I won't say,

Okay,

You have this or this weight and therefore you need this amount of liters of water.

You should listen to your body.

Start your day in the morning with a glass of water before you have your breakfast.

And then you always drink as much as you don't feel thirsty.

So if you feel thirsty,

You drink too less.

But yeah,

That makes a lot of sense.

So people should just listen to their body.

Exactly.

And yeah,

Sure.

The second thing is we have this great KefirPoint app.

I think some of you already know our app and the exercises in our app.

Because what we see is that our exercises work for the fascia.

So because we have many spring-like movements which are for the fascia.

And when you do these exercises for a few days,

You will feel this relief in the jaw area.

That's what our Kefir friends say.

Because then you're actively targeting the fascia in the jaw or neck.

Yes,

Exactly.

And you always have to not only do jaw exercises,

But you have to do exercises for your whole system.

The one very,

Very important thing is your tongue.

Because also in the tongue are fascia and the tongue is the crucial point which can relax the jaw for a long time.

Because the tongue is here to stabilize your lower jaw and keep it in the right resting position.

That's why we need the right tongue resting posture.

That's what you also can learn in our KefirPoint app.

And as I said,

There are many,

Many effective exercises in it.

And how important is it to link it to overall body exercise?

How much does that play into it?

So what does yoga or exercise?

That's very,

Very important to move your body.

We also have some neck and shoulder exercises in the app.

Because this is the area which is directly connected to the jaw.

So we have lots of things,

Even when you work a lot on your laptop or work a lot with your smartphone.

You need to relax this area.

You need to relax your hands here because also the hands are connected to the fascia to your jaw.

So that's very important.

We have some hand exercises,

Jaw and shoulder,

Neck exercises.

And of course,

Every movement,

Especially in yoga or pilates is very good to keep the body fascia healthy.

I would recommend this for everyone.

Very nice.

And another thought I was just having.

So we mentioned that the fascia contract with the motions.

Now in the app we also have the mindfulness training,

Which is very much about relaxing.

How much would that help to maybe tackle some stuff?

Or maybe if there's something going on at the moment that's a little bit emotionally challenging and you can then relax with some mindfulness.

How does that impact the fascia,

Would you say?

In a holistic way,

You need to work on your emotions too.

And when you relax with our audio training,

So you always listen to this before you go to sleep so that you can relax while sleeping.

And your fascia can get healthy while you sleep.

So the thing is when you lose,

When you integrate or transform these emotions,

The fascia won't get tense again.

I think that's the thing.

So you need to get out of this circle from stress and get contracted and stress again.

So when you relax once again,

Even your mind,

Your emotions,

That's a very good basis for healthy fascia.

I think the audio training,

If people do it at night,

Will be quite helpful for that because at night a lot of people have,

I know I do sometimes,

A lot of thoughts at night.

But if you can replace that with a calming meditation that also teaches you and shows you where to put your tongue and how to relax your jaw,

I feel that's very helpful.

I mean,

We've heard that from many customers.

Yeah,

Exactly.

And yeah,

So what I also can recommend,

It's very,

Very new,

Brand new here.

So we have our fascia roller,

The Kieper van roller.

And here you can do fascia rolling.

And that's when you imagine again this sponge.

You should always do massage-like movements to squeeze the sponge,

To squeeze the fascia to get out of the fluid.

I've explained it earlier.

And with this fascia roller,

You can,

You can,

Yeah,

Loosen up these hardenings.

Yeah,

And just stacking together and get it really healthy and it works.

So because when everyone who gets stressed gets some tense fascia and I can feel it when I roll it,

I can feel like some knots.

When you roll again,

You feel that it gets less knots,

Less painful knots.

So it's a good SOS tool,

So to speak.

If someone has something really stressful going on,

They feel their jaw is quite tense,

They can use the roller and just slowly roll over.

And in our app,

We also have instructions how to do that,

Right?

Yes,

Yes.

The thing is always when it comes to the fascia,

You need to do everything very slowly.

This squeezing needs to get only in one direction very slowly.

And that's very important to do it in the right way.

That's why we showed in the app how to do it.

Because otherwise it's just like rolling up and down and it doesn't have any effect.

So it's very important to do this in the right way.

So if you think about the fluid,

If we go back and forth,

What does that do?

Does it just mean the fluid doesn't get drained and it just stays in place?

It stays inside the fascia.

There are also studies,

Scientifically studies about this movement and how to keep them healthy.

And they show this.

You can also imagine when you have the sponge,

You do this,

You won't squeeze the fluid,

The water out of the sponge.

Not very much.

It's just like rolling up and down.

But you need to roll and to push it out and to squeeze it out.

Because it's so easy,

You know?

It's so easy.

And I want all the people out in the world who have this awful jaw pain.

And I know how it feels when you have jaw pain because I had it by myself.

And I just want to say it's so easy.

It's so easy to do something against it.

And to support your body,

To heal itself.

And it doesn't need to be a painful treatment or so.

Everyone can do something by him or herself.

And besides that you can save quite a lot of money because treatments and therapies can be very,

Very expensive.

And you can also do our program when you have a splint.

That's the thing.

So you can do the Key for Find app and the roller and the trainer.

So we also have a tongue trainer to bring the tongue in the right position.

You can do this additionally to any other treatment.

It's not to do something or to throw your splint away.

It's not about this.

You can do it additionally and work by yourself on your root causes.

And it works.

And that's why we always do this webinars and talk a lot about it.

Because this information needs to come out.

Everyone needs to know about the fascia.

Everyone needs to know about to help yourself with the jaw pain.

I think it's great and I really admire your dedication to spreading the message as well.

As you do.

Thank you so much Felix.