Hi @processive!

How Is It going?

About your tenseness... Check some myofunctional excercises for the tongue . They are quite relieving.

My favorite Is : open your mouth as much as you can, keeping the tip of the tongue on the spot (incisive papilla) . Hold the position for ~ 10s . Slowly close your mouth getting your tongue in mewing position. Repeat as long as It feels good

Concerning TMJ. Try to slightly jut the mandible forward. Open and close the mouth. Does It still happen? 

I am not sure to suggest you to Mew in this position...

Hey @Kyte, thank you for the stretching exercise for the jaw. It might relieve some tension. But I wonder if it is enough to tip the scales to where I can hold proper tongue position 24/7.

I forgot to mention that the TMJD is probably on the mild side. I have had some clicking in the jaw for years but since I discovered mewing now I don't have any clicking anymore. Unless if I chew alot of gum, the clicking comes back temporoarily.

You might be on to something there with the suggestion to jut the mandible forward. I just started reading this: https://treningogrehab.no/true-cause-solution-temporomandibular-dysfunction-tmd/ and I think he recommends some form of jaw jutting for TMJD.

To keep balance and not over active masseters is as simple as having your teeth slightly apart or slightly touching. The problem isn't really having your masseters tense, it's when it's out of balance with the tongue pushing up. When the tongue pushes up your masseters do engage a bit to maintain your bite. Regarding TMJ, follow the guys advice in the link you provided, jut your jaw slightly. 

Thank you for your comment @sinned. I do have teeth slightly apart or slightly touching. I don't clench my teeth. My tongue have, however, become very strong from mewing and tongue chewing so perhaps the masseters can't keep up with the force of the tongue (I do hard mewing).  I will start doing the exercises from that link. Do you think jaw jutting can or should be done while mewing at the same time? Have you also had tense jaw muscles?

I don't think the exercises are necessary imo. Just make a new resting position for your bite, make sure jutting becomes a habit until it's no longer "jutting" but a natural resting position. You should jut the jaw; you should also obviously be mewing. There's no reason to not mew when jutting your jaw. Personally, my jaw naturally comes forward a little bit if I chin tuck. Realize that the jut will only be a millimeters difference. You don't want to jut to the point where you have an edge-to-edge bite or an underbite, jut to the point where you have normal occlusion. Search up on images normal occlusion to see what it looks like. Personally, I also have TMJ, my right jaw join crackles when I open my mouth. I have a slight overbite and if I just ever so slightly jut literally a few millimeters and THEN open my mouth there's no more crackling. I'm not saying you will have the same experience but what I am saying is that jutting will make a difference, a complete solution will be mewing to get your maxilla up and forwards. As for your last question, I can't say I have. As long as your in balance, your teeth slightly touching or slightly apart, you shouldn't worry about overactive jaw muscles. "Overactive" jaw muscles only occur if you're not in balance. If I clench slightly for example, and then push my tongue with the same force I'm now in balance. If I clench and my tongue isn't pushing up I'm out of balance and the force is getting transferred to the jaw joint and teeth, and even the whole skull if your clenching hard enough, the masseters are a very powerful muscle.

@processive that's an interesting article. Well done

@kyte You should check the rest of the guys stuff, he has a youtube channel as well. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfAFqPAZsa2TzzT8Ck-qAqg

I find with my tounge properly up , posterior third engaged my teeth are a few millimeters apart and my mandible shifts slightly forward. In this position my jaw opens smoothly so i try to chew in this position also. 

@sinned

Interesting enough I have been jutting my jaw since I started mewing, even before I knew it was helpful to TMJ issues. Just becouse my face looked better with the chin straighter and some mm's more forward. My occlusion is pretty good but my upper palate is slightly narrower than the lower palate (not sure what it's really called). I'm hoping that over time mewing will expand the upper palate somewhat and that the occlusion will naturally stabilize better.

Your personal example is very helpful and I'll keep it in mind. When you say that "you shouldn't worry about overactive jaw muscles" are you saying that I should just keep mewing and push through the pain and hope that it gets better over time?

I've been having this slight dizziness or slight visual distortion for about half a year now. I think it might be related to either my neck or my jaw muscles as both of them could cause such issues. And I know that my neck and jaw issues are due to poor posture. I'm hoping to be able to do effective mewing 24/7 which should help with these issues long term, by moving the maxilla up and forwards like you said.

Thanks guys for your input.

 

I've been having this slight dizziness or slight visual distortion for about half a year now. I think it might be related to either my neck or my jaw muscles as both of them could cause such issues. And I know that my neck and jaw issues are due to poor posture. 

Thanks guys for your input.

Hi @processive,when you experience visual distortion, do you see something similar to this ?

Nope. Sorry. I should have explained it better. It's basically astigmatism. Imagine you drink one beer and there is just the slighest blurriness to your vision. Thats pretty much how it feels. More noticable at longer ranges. Also seems to get worse sometimes which I would attribute to tenseness in my neck and or jaw (or eye muscles).

I've been to an eye doctor and she did some vision tests on me and she figured it was astigmatism and tried to get me to use glasses. But since it appeared so suddenly, I suspect that it might be the muscles surrounding the eye that is straining, or something relating to nerves. Jaw, neck and eye muscles are very closely connected. I did not get glasses becouse I figured it to be a crutch, getting used to the glasses would mean that the eyes are in a perpetual state of "wrong", instead of fixing the core issue.

Usually astigmatism is a curve of the lense on the eye but it can actually be caused by eye muscles being too tense and pulling on the eye causing it's shape (and the lense) to change slightly causing that slight blurriness.

Ok, glad that you already asked to an expert