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TMJ and Neck Pain and Dysfunction: Dentists and ENTs are Bettering Women’s Health When They Refer to Manual Therapists.

Updated: Dec 3, 2025


A woman in pain, holding her jaw and wincing in pain.
"With each individual patient who is told their pain needs more than just a simplistic injection, we move closer to a healthier world of mind-body connection and empowered, flourishing women."

Now, let's be clear, I am in awe of dentists and am incredibly grateful for people who care for our dental needs. Living in an age before modern dentistry would be the worst. But I strongly believe, or rather I know, that for soft tissue imbalance of the jaw, you need a trained soft tissue therapist.


Soft tissue imbalances of the jaw are extremely common. And whereas the solutions to jaw symptoms are often not that complicated, in the current culture, finding the solutions is often quite hard.

Manual massage therapy of the jaw and neck eases conditions such as TMJ pain, clicking and popping, grinding, ear pain and ear fullness, headaches, migraines, pain under the chin and on the anterior neck, cervical dysfunction, and a loss of range of motion of the jaw and neck.


Intraoral manual therapy applied to the jaw—or “jaw massage”—isn’t new. However, like most forms of direct physical medicine, it has been overlooked in the standard model of medical care. Medical providers may not know it exists and therefore may be skeptical, and unfortunately, there is no incentive to take a serious look and just how game-changing smart soft tissue therapy is.


That being said, after doing this work for over 20 years, for the first time, I am receiving emails from women saying their dentists and ENTs recommended jaw massage. What these dentists and ENTs are doing is revolutionary and has the power to change more than just the lives of their individual patients.


Our society needs a dynamic and connected healthcare system. Our bodies are meant to receive therapeutic touch. When our bodies receive direct therapeutic touch, they produce their own chemical reactions. The body moves inflammation out of the local area, nerves communicate a new sense of safety to the brain, muscles relax, and TMJ health becomes possible.


But the jaw needs more than just outside touch. Women need to realize why they have jaw tension, they need to know how emotional tension affects the jaw, and they need to realize when stress is overwhelming their bodies, when their jaw is clenching, when their pelvic floor is tightening, and when their entire body is being affected.


The jaw is a loving messenger, telling women that something needs to change. It is not controversial for me to say that our medical culture developed to treat the messenger and not the root cause of pain issues, emotional or physical. Not only does the jaw benefit from the exploration of emotional stress, but it is not an isolated physical structure. You cannot simply inject the jaw, or even try to change the mechanics of the jaw, without also giving therapeutic assessment and treatment to the head, neck, shoulders, and anything down the body’s mechanical chain.


So what would happen if more dentists and ENTs started telling women to seek holistic treatment for jaw pain? Women who receive holistic care have holistic outcomes. Women who acknowledge how emotional stress is affecting their jaw can make lifestyle changes that also affect their hormones and even their physical and emotional heart. Patients who understand that jaw pain needs dynamic treatment can work on their structural health in other ways, lessening the potential for cervical disc disease and other negative outcomes.


With each individual patient who is told their pain needs more than just a simplistic injection, we move closer to a healthier world of mind-body connection and empowered, flourishing women.


Peace & Love,

Tara


Want to Know More?


I have more posts coming soon,. Stay tuned!


Check out my books on health and wellness!



This is the cover to The Elemental Woman book. A book on Ayurveda focused on women's health.

The Elemental Woman

A Conversation for the Modern Western Woman Inspired by the Healing Wisdom of the Ancient Eastern Sage


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Food & Mood Journal

 A tracking guide to connect the food you eat, the emotions you feel, and increase the feeling of deep self-love



This imagine show the cover of the Mindful Movement Journal. A mindfulness journal for women's health that connects emotions and movement and fitness.

Mindful Movement Journal

 A tracking guide to connect the motions you make, the emotions you feel, and increase the feeling of deep self-love



This image shows the cover of Basic Ayurveda. This is a hard cover women's health book that is a colorful refine guide to the main The Elemental Woman book. The Elemental Woman is a women's health book.

Basic Ayurveda 

The Elemental Woman Supplement Guide






About the author:

Since 2004, Tara Lee Clasen has been assisting women on their healing adventures. As a woman-focused physical medicine provider, also trained in Eastern medicine, she knows transformation is possible and knows that with reflection and self-love, your future is full of bright possibilities.



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