Chronic neck pain is enough of a burden on its own but could it be affecting and related to other areas of our body? That is the question this study looked to answer.

They took patients with chronic neck pain and no other related symptoms. They then checked them against people with no neck pain to see if the neck pain patients had more trigger points in two of the primary muscles used to open and close our jaw. Their findings showed that the neck pain group had more trigger points in both muscles of the jaw. The type of trigger point they had were called latent trigger points because they were not causing pain presently. They also found that the neck pain patients could not open their mouth as wide and those without neck pain. An interesting point from this study is they had to eliminate over half of the people they recruited because they had other symptoms besides just neck pain. This supports the idea that dysfunction in the neck doesn’t only cause pain it affects other areas.

The important link from this study is that the nerves that send pain signals from the neck can interfere with the nerves that control many muscles of the face. So if you address the cause of the neck pain with Chiropractic Adjustments you not only help the neck pain you are also affecting the muscles of the face that control jaw opening. This is one small study that shows how Chiropractic Adjustments help far reaching areas of the body that may not seem to have anything to do with the spine. Using the above example can you see how a Subluxation in the neck causing neck pain could be the cause of TMJ (jaw) pain and how a Chiropractic Adjustment that allows the joints to move properly and reduces the neck pain will also relieve the TMJ or jaw pain? The spine is the life line to all other areas of the body, it’s as simple as that!

Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics Nov/Dec 2012

Dr Scott Szela