Here is a video I found on You Tube of some exercises.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O8ArvMOzqQ

this is great. everyone feel free to put in your input---we all should pitchin here. that way we can all do it together and kick this thing in the butt---LOL

this one is really good. it gives pictures of how you should look when doing it and a good description of how to do it.

im still looking so do check back for more.

http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/tmj

I really like this one
http://www.causeof.org/tmd.htm

Please post any recepies that you have here. If you have any that you really like or just an idea.

you can always take any recepie and put it in the blender and add milk or the fluid of your choice(broth etc) to make it smooth.

I like to take salisbury steaks and blend it into mashed potatos

Here are some recipes for all those who need stuff to eat!!

I eat VERY healthy, so I had a hard time finding recipes that were soft/liquid, but me wanting to go to culinary school next year helped me hugely because I read through every cookbook in my library and came up with a few soup/smoothie recipes. I know the smoothies seem strange because they have leafy-greens in them, but if you balance the ingredients right you can't actually taste the bitterness, but it cuts the sweet a bit which is nice.
These smoothies could easily be doubled if you are hungry enough (and when you've got TMJ - who isnt?!)

Also, I usually eat a tablespoon or 2 of peanut butter (only fresh-ground or 'natural') with my smoothies to boost the protein, vitamins, and calories.

Avocado Pineapple Smoothie

1/2 Avocado
3/4 Cup Frozen pineapple chunks
pinch dried unsweetened coconut
huge handful baby spinach leaves
1/2 - 3/4 cup water

blend well in blender and slurp!
** About 250 calories **

Yummy Green Smoothie

1 banana
1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
5 large romaine leaves or 2 handfuls
1/2 - 3/4 cup water

blend well in blender and drink!
**about 200 calories**

BANANA CRANBERRY CREAM SMOOTHIE

2 bananas
2 sprinkles cinnamon
1 teaspoon non-alcohol vanilla extract
1/2 cl of hulled pumpkin seeds
a few pecans (I used about 4 halves)
½ cup fresh cranberries or more to taste
water to desired consistency

Blend seeds/nuts first to create powder, then blend everything else together.
** about 450 calories **


CHICKPEA SOUP
1 can chickpeas
• 1 medium onion – chopped
• 2 carrots- chopped
• 2 sticks celery -chopped
• 1 can reduced salt chopped tomatoes
1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 Cloves of garlic crushed
• 1 or 2 red chillies – deseeded and chopped (optional)
• olive oil – 1 to 2 tbsp
• 4 cups of organic vegetable stock
• 1.5 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1.5 teaspoon cumin

Fry the onion, carrot, celery, bell pepper, and garlic in oil until just starting to softened. Next add the coriander, cumin and chillies (if using) cook for a further 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and stock and bring to a boil. Simmer gently for about 30min until the vegetables are cooked through.
Next add the chickpeas and stir well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook gently for a further 10 minutes.
(DEPENDING ON YOUR LEVEL OF CHEWABILITY - puree in blender for a thick & creamy soup or leave alone. Chickpeas are pretty easy to chew but I do have my bad days).

1. What exactly is this and what does the treatment entail?
2. what treatments are available?
3. what treatments would best work for me?
4.If plan a doesnt work--what is plan b?
5. what are the benefits of the treatments?
6. Are there any side effects to the treatments?
7. what meds are avalable to help with this, what are side effects?
8.how long will the treatment last?
9.how long when treatment is completed will the results last?
10. how long till we see results
11. what is the likely hood of recurance?
12. if you cant help me---can you referr me to someone that can?

I will add to this list as time goes on--as i remember things that i have asked in the past.

something that will help your doctor immensly is to keep a diary---how much pain on a scale of 1-10----- anyting that may trigger a flair up----how many times you hear scraping,popin,clicking--locking per day per side. It will help him get and idea of what he needs to do and how much you have improved or if you are getting worse or staying the same---it will help him determine if he needs to keep doing what he is doing, change something or try someting new.

Banana Milk

1 medium banana
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla
dash sea salt
4 ice cubes

Directions
Place ingredients in a blender.
Pour over cereal or granola, or just drink!
Makes 1 serving, about 1 cup.

cals: 120.7 fat: 0.6 g protein: 1.2 g carbs: 28.2 g fiber: 2.8 g
------
Blueberry Kiwi Smoothie

2 medium kiwis, peeled & sliced roughly
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 medium banana (alt. 1/3 c. vanilla yogurt)
up to 3/4 c. raw goat's milk (you can, of course, use regular milk, if preferred)
3/4 c. ice

Directions
Place kiwis, blueberries, and banana in a blender with the milk. Blend until fairly smooth, then add ice and blend on high until ice is crushed.
Pour into a glass and enjoy!
-
Makes a rather large smoothie - about 3 cups!

cals: 367.1 fat: 9.3 g protein: 9.6 g carbs: 67.8 g fiber: 10.1 g
-----------
Bluenana Nut Oatmeal

1/4 cup quaker oats
1/2 cup water
1/8th cup frozen blueberries
just under 1/4 cup sliced banana
1 tbsp chopped walnuts

Directions
Heat the water to boiling; stir in oats. Cook oats on medium low heat for 3.5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Dump in the blueberries, banana, and nuts, and stir. Cover pan and let cook another minute and a half, stirring once or twice.
Remove from heat and pour in a bowl to eat. Yum!
With everything together this yields about 1 cup.
---
If you don't want to try to chew the nuts, either leave them out (you can use milk instead of water for thickness & calories), grind them into almost a flour, or you can toss them in with the oatmeal at the beginning and they will soften considerably.
cals: 179.2 fat: 8 g protein: 4.4 g carbs: 25.3 g fiber: 4 g
---------------
Bugs Bunny Weight Gain Shake

1 Vanilla Ensure, Boost, or other nutritional drink, frozen
1 to 1 1/2 medium carrots, shredded

Directions
Carefully cut the top off of the frozen drink and extract the frozen interior (setting it in a bowl of hot water for 3 - 5 minutes makes this easier and gives some liquid to blend with)
Place frozen stuff and shredded carrot in a food processor and blend until smoothed together.
Eat with a spoon or wait a few minutes and it will melt enough to drink through a thick straw.
----
cals: 275 fat: 6.1 g protein: 9.6 g carbs: 45.8 g fiber: 2.7 g
This was calculated using a regular vanilla drink; using a Plus! will add 100 calories
------------
Casserole of Chickpeas, Eggplant, and Tomatoes

1 1/2 cups dried chickpeas, or 4 cups canned chickpeas, drained
salt
olive oil
2 medium eggplants, washed but not peeled, cut into 2-inch cubes
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
pepper
3 medium onions, finely chopped
10 small tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped

Directions

If using dried chickpeas(if using canned skip down to "preheat oven"): in a bowl, soak dried chickpeas covered by 2 inches of water overnight. Drain. In a kettle, cover chickpeas with fresh water, add some salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook 2 hours, until peas are tender. You will need to add water from time to time.
[Obviously, the easier and faster way is using canned chickpeas. ]
Preheat oven to 400.
In a skillet, heat some olive oil and saute eggplant 10 - 15 minutes, until light brown. With a slotted spoon, remove eggplant and transfer to a casserole. Season with paprika, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, salt, and pepper. In the same skillet, add a few drops olive oil and saute onions until light brown. Spread onion with pan drippings over eggplant. Add pepper, salt, and a layer of chickpeas. Cover with tomatoes. Dribble a little olive oil on top and season one more time. Bake 35 minutes.
8 servings

cals: 249.5 fat: 5.5 g protein: 8.8 g carbs: 44.7 g fiber: 11 g
-----------
Oatmeal Smoothie

1 cup apple juice
1 frozen banana
3 heaping tablespoons of uncooked oatmeal OR 1 packet instant oatmeal
5 frozen strawberries

Directions
blend ingredients in blender until smooth.

Number of Servings: 1
cals: 303.7 fat: 2.1 g protein: 3.6 g carbs: 72.3 g fiber: 5.8 g
----------
Ultimate Weight Gain Shake

1 vanilla (or chocolate) Ensure Plus! or choice meal replacement drink, partially frozen
1 small banana or 1/2 large one
1 tbsp fresh-ground, natural peanut butter

Directions
TO FREEZE SHAKE:
Either open it and freeze it in ice trays (reserve some of the liquid so it will blend - about half of it), or freeze it in the container. To remove from container, soak the bottle in hot water for 3-5 minutes, then either scrape it out with a knife or CAREFULLY cut it open and dump it all out).
---
TO PREPARE DRINK:
Place frozen drink in blender. Next, break up banana on top and pour reserved liquid in. Plop the peanut butter ON something so that it does not just get stuck underneath the blender's blade.
Whizz everything together for a few minutes and voila!

cals: 547.9 fat: 19.5 g protein: 18 g carbs: 76.7 g fiber: 4.4 g
--------------
Tomato Basil Soup Like-No-Other

1 c onion; chopped
5 cloves garlic, smashed
2 - 3 tbsp olive oil
3 cn whole tomatoes; 28-ounces ea.
2 c organic vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
2 ts balsamic vinegar
1 c milk or whipping cream
1/2 c chopped fresh basil
1 salt and pepper; to taste

Directions
Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil in a large saucepan
until the vegetables are tender.
Add the tomatoes and stock. Bring to a boil remove from heat.
Pour into a blender container (you may have to do this in sections - it's a lot of soup). Process until the mixture is pureed.
Stir in the vinegar, cream or milk, basil, salt and pepper.
Ladle into soup bowls. Serve immediately.
--
This soup is great for dipping bread in - it will soften into almost a mush - if you don't mind the texture.

Serves 12
cals: 79.9 fat: 3 g protein: 2.8 g carbs: 12.2 g fiber: 2.4 g
-----------------
Applcado Mousse/Pudding

Did you ever think that avocados could be used for something OTHER than guacamole? They are a fruit - so let's make them into something sweet! This stuff is great as an alternative to yogurt - especially since it's higher in healthy fats and cholesterol free!

Ingredients

2 avocados, peeled and pitted
2 apples
2 tsp lemon juice
water, to desired consistency

Directions
Place avocados in a food processor or blender.
Cut apples in half from top down, and use a mellon-baller to remove seeds. Cut into large chunks and place in processor with avocados.
Sprinkle lemon juice around fruits, and start blending. Drizzle a little water in at a time until it starts to blend, then wait before you add any more - it becomes thinner and smoother the longer it blends. Add as much water as you need to reach the consistency you want.
Store in a jar in the fridge for up to 2 days
-
Serve on its own like mousse or pudding (depending on the texture you got), or with your favorite soft fruit (it's really good over bananas!).
-
Yield: Appx 2 cups, serving is 1/2 cup
cals: 186.6 fat: 13.6 g protein: 1.8 g carbs: 18.5 g fiber: 7.8 g
-----------
High-Protein Build-Up Smoothie

1 medium banana
1/2 avocado, pitted and peeled
3/4 cup strawberries
2 cups spinach leaves
1/8-1/4 cup carrot juice
water, to desired consistency
1 scoop vanilla or plain protein powder, opt (included in nutritionals - adjust accordingly)

Directions
blend everything but protein powder in blender until no chunks remain. Add in protein powder and a little water (if necessary - the powder just thickens and poofs everything up), and blend on low just to incorporate. Serve!
Makes about 4 cups - enough for 1 really hungry guy (my dad, for one!) or 2 normal people
---
NOTE: The protein powder used in calculating this recipe (Advant Edge) is listed at having 170 calories and 20g protein per 6 tbsp. The protein powder I use only has 90 calories and 19g protein per 6 tbsp, so you may have to adjust nutritionals a bit as you make yours.

cals: 493.4 fat: 15.3 g protein: 25.6 g carbs: 70 g fiber: 12.6 g
--------------
Blueberry Banana Breakfast (even softer than oatmeal!)

2 medium bananas
2 dates, pitted
1 tsp cacao/carob powder or nibs
1/2 to 3/4 cup fresh blueberries (or frozen, defrosted)
1/2 tsp cinnamon, or to taste
dash nutmeg

Directions
Puree 1 banana, dates, and cacao (opt) in food processor or blender, adding water until you get a thin yogurt-like consistency.
In your serving bowl, slice the other banana and sprinkle the blueberries on top. Pour banana-yogurt stuff over this and sprinkle with the cinnamon and nutmeg.
Enjoy!

cals: 328 fat: 1.6 g protein: 3.6 g carbs: 84.1 g fiber: 10.6 g

I am getting sick of it, but soy milk, yogurt is is resort when my pain is bad. Decent amount of protein and calcium.

http://www.stevedds.com/jaw_exercises.htm

when I do the "resisted opening " exercise, I force my condoyle or jaw to pop on the problem area. You don't want to make it pop right??
and I thought clenching your teeth was bad for your bite.

right just do it to the point just befor you feel pain

clenching your teeth is not bad for your bite as long as the bite is hitting properly. if its not then you have a problem---there is such thing as a healthy clench.

I read somewhere that a day's worth of clenching so that you can eat your food totals maybe a little more than 20 minutes. But, if you have the chronic neuromuscular disorder of jaw clenching, you could clench as much as 40 minutes per hour while sleeping.

Having massive jaw muscles (hypotrophied), disabling pain and migraine-like headaches daily, I can testify to "too much" clenching. If I sleep more than 1hour without taping my nose to force mouthbreathing, I get pain and migraine-like headaches. If I sleep more than 3 hours, even with mouthbreathing, I get disabling pain and migraine-like headaches.

I've done PT, athrocentesis, progressive bite guard adjustments to insure proper bite, painkillers, muscle relaxants, etc. An injection of Botox helped a little, but I am waiting for my second session in hopes of real relief, at which time I can step up the PT again and hope to stop what is severely chronic and has ruined my joints, jaw, teeth, and quality of life.

I am immediately suspicious of anyone that promotes a single cure-all supplement pill with a link to buy.
I have taken the food supplements in the pill recommended by the above poster (really cheap at places like Trader Joe's) for more than a decade. Altho recent double blind tests say they don't help joint pain, I think that it might helpful to do longer term intake of the wholest possible food supplements (as opposed to isolated vitamin pills often in cheapest, inactive or unassimilatable form).
Just a note of caution to readers, especially of someone who says TMJ hurts him only when eating - what about the potentially more prevalent TMD!
I have now injected 3 full vials of botox to my masseters and can still chew shoe leather (except for the pain, of course!) I also confirmed that I am not getting migraines, nor have antibodies to botox.
I still have 100% disabling pain attacks that include migraine like headache, bone pain, spasms radiating down my right side and atrophying my neck, and causing concussion-like effects after venous occlusions (like microstrokes) that show on brain scans. I still can't sleep more than an hour without TMD, although taping my nose shut and using the springy cushion of the drug store bite cushion helps (U shaped with bite wings you can adjust for jaw size - not the moldable type which were comparatively useless. This bite guard is still best only for diagnosis and is no cureall)

I will start seeing orofacial pain docs at UCal San Francisco in December and am hopeful. I think as treatments for TMD become available, more research in how to prevent it is also coming along soon, so hang in there!

WOW, thank you so much for all these recipes! How did you come up with all these? Did you read about them somewhere?

Well, I don't have any recipes (I'm actually a terrible cook) but I can share with you how I got rid of my TMJ. I followed a program called the TMJ Help Program, by Katherine Page. I can't remember the website but I'm sure you can find it easily by googling it.

The TMJ Help Program is full of jaw exercises and massages for the jaw, mouth, shoulders, neck and the rest of the body. What I found interesting in this program is that Katherine Page takes a different approach from every one else. To her, TMJ can be caused by a bad general body posture, meaning that a misalignment in your back can actually cause TMJ. I had never thought about that before but it does make lots of sense.

I was really skeptical at first because the website sounded like one of these miracle sites but it did work for me, although it took longer than expected... I practiced the exercises for a few months and got where I am today! Yiippeeee!

Has anyone else tried it?

You are very welcome! I love to cook, so I spend a lot of time reading recipes online and even more time cooking them! A few of the recipes are directly from other people's recipes, and some of them are my own recipes. I'm glad I could help you!

I am also VERY happy for you and your success! I haven't heard of that program before, I will have to look into it.

I believe like you that there is no healthy clenching. I have found over 80% of persons having TMJ symptoms have them because of their muscles not because of their TMJ.

Most people do not know about keep their teeth apart to help their symptoms--noone has ever told them to keep their teeth apart.

Try it--you'll like it!!

Harold

Be careful with any pill... and some exercises... although it is important to stimulate the muscle and help massage the disc back into place.. some exercises can actually advance the problem. I tried a lot of exercises and a pill or two... and finally tried a dentist. I have a mouthopiece now and no more issue's... I thought it sounded strange in the beginning but was desperate.. and it worked.. or seems to be working I should say.

The most common cause for the limitation of jaw opening is muscle incoordination brought on by bad bite. If it is caused by bad bite, FOSA (FACE Orthopedic Stabilizing Appliance) therapy can alleviate muscle pain and help you to open mouth without pain. It does so by temporarily creating perfect bite and eliminating contacts of teeth when a patient grinds teeth in sleep. A person can exert as much as ten times amount of force in sleep as opposed to in waking! The appliance must be rigid and hard, must be fitted into the patient's mouth and adjusted by an experienced and qualified dentist.