Chicken or The Egg?

[Alvin Brown]

Are you dealing with a client that experiences chronic upper cervical pain and dysfunction? On palpation, what you may find is that the segment may feel boney and restricted, and the mobility of the segment on passive range-of-motion, reveals major restrictions, especially in side-bending. There are numerous methods of treating this condition, and based on your expertise,chronic neck pain can be very frustrating for all involved in the attempt to find a solution.The question is:​

– should we just concentrate our efforts on releasing the spine via myofascial release techniques, or should we be focused on relaxing the muscles in the neck? Or should we be looking at the effects of a blocked throat chakra? Or better yet, maybe the answer is a combination of all these methods? Well, let me throw one more solution in the mix by shedding some light on one other factor for you to consider – chicken or the egg?

TMJ OR CERVICAL SPINE:​

, which came first?

Here’s the deal: in order to have proper biomechanics of the temporomandibular joint, especially on opening, you need almost optimal function of the cervical spine. I say optimal because there are many people who get along just fine with less than optimal cervical mobility. But it’s when that neck pain becomes chronic, and you’ve just about tried everything else, I remind you, DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE CERVICAL SPINE AND TMJ, especially the upper portion from C0-C3, which are intimately related in function.As an experiment, try this yourself: attempt to open your mouth while restricting the movement of your neck. See how much this affects the optimal function of the neck, especially in extension. When it comes to the biomechanics of all joints, it will usually include and effect two or more movements, so you can be sure that eventually you can expect other motions, sometimes much farther away from the origin, to be affected as well. There’s even some research showing a close relationship between the TMJ and sacroiliac joint dysfunction. We’ll get into that in later articles.So I ask you the question again – is this a case of chicken or egg? Which one do you blame for your client’s chronic pain? Neck or TMJ?Until later…some food for thought,AlvinP.S.​