Connecting with Medical Providers
Looking for the online class for your patients with craniofacial pains? Self Help to Relieve Head, Neck & Jaw Pain is at HelpHeadPain.com. Your patients can access a free video where I teach them about the trigger points in masseter, self-massage & stretching to masseter, and one habit to change now.
Collaborating with massage therapy for TMD
Intraoral massage to the deep belly of the masseter
Through collaboration and synergy of our practices our shared patient/client outcomes will be greater. As a massage therapist I am: 1) deactivating any trigger points in muscles referring jaw pain. 2) treating the asymmetrical masticatory-muscle tightness in order to restore mechanical symmetry of the TM Joints, thereby positively influencing occlusion via the improved position and functionality of the Condyle-Disc Complex. Once joint symmetry and disc position are improved there may also be restored mandibular opening, increased endurance while chewing and speaking, and less pain. I have the time, desire, and skillset to help identify and retrain poor postural habits and teach self massage.
Free Lunch ‘n Learn for your staff
Many dentists asked me to make a Lunch ‘n Learn video for their teams. You can access the video Jaw Muscle Review Relating to TMD and Headaches through this link (or the sign up form on this page). It will explain trigger points in muscles and help professionals identify what patients would best benefit from massage. Feel free to share this video with your team.
Katie’s training
My training has included multiple massage therapy for TMJ classes and a physical therapy for TMJ class. In addition to intraoral massage I can do gentle joint distraction as well as training in jaw stabilization.
How I support you
It is my thought that we should have as our goal to treat the dynamic function first with hands on work, removing irritating habits, then self care stretches and exercises. Doing the dynamic interventions first will change a patient’s occlusion, for the better. Then you as the dentist or doctor, re-checks to see if symptoms have lessened: pain, movement patterns, and how much resolution of structural or articular symptoms. Now, you can use that work as a platform to do the next interventions with splints or bite adjustments. Your interventions will be much more effective this way having done the prehab work. The patient will be set in a more functional position.
If you are in Austin and want to refer your patients to my table, direct them to www.KatieMassage.com. For an affordable option and for those not in Austin, direct them to HelpHeadPain.com to learn from home through one of my two online courses. The courses range from $70 to $85. There is a free video lesson for them to try.
Looking for free videos to educate your patients?
You may share any from my Help Head Pain YouTube channel, or Katie Massage blog on your social media or website. I have videos on (click each one):
How I help with myofunctional therapy and airway professionals
Whether I support your patients online or on my table I stand beside you as an airway advocate. I can tie in the practical advice they are looking for. When the musculature of the tongue or jaw is too tight this creates tension or misalignment in the TMJs or inability to get the tongue into the proper cave.
One example of a client who had been seeing a myofunctional therapist: I did the gentle massage to the root of the tongue and floor of the mouth and had her practice the cave and tongue postures she was taught. THEN she felt her true potential. "Oh! That's what Jill was wanting me to do! I can do it now." The lesson is anchored in her body.
“I have referred patients who suffer from TMD and jaw pain, as well as those who deal with chronic head and neck pain to Katie. The feedback from my patients has been wonderful and I have noticed significant changes including increased range of motion, reduction in pain and less clenching and grinding of the teeth. I highly recommend her practice and her online course for those who suffer from head, neck or jaw pain.
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