Weeks 1–2
Pain
Calm the joint down.
Hands-on techniques release the overworked jaw and neck muscles and ease the joint irritation starting your first visit.
What We Treat
TMJ/TMD treatment in Cherry Hill & Burlington.
The clicking, popping, or locking in your jaw that makes chewing, yawning, or talking through a long meeting feel like a chore. It’s fixable, and it starts with a cause-first evaluation, not a guess.
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like you?
- A click or pop in your jaw every time you open wide
- Ordering the softer thing on the menu because chewing steak isn’t worth it
- Waking up with a sore, tight jaw from clenching in your sleep
- A dull ache around your ear or temple that you keep blaming on a headache
- Your jaw catching or locking for a second before it releases
- Avoiding a big yawn because you know what happens next
Two or more? Your jaw is trying to tell you something.
Why It Happens
TMJ pain is a symptom. Joint mechanics are the cause.
Your jaw joint relies on a small disc and a group of muscles working in sync every time you open and close your mouth. When those muscles get overworked, from clenching, grinding, or stress, or when the joint’s alignment shifts, the disc can slip out of its normal position. That’s what produces the clicking, locking, or pain.
A mouthguard or soft-food diet can quiet the symptoms for a while, but it doesn’t address why the muscles are overworking in the first place. A cause-first evaluation looks at your jaw mechanics, neck posture, and muscle tension together, since they’re usually connected, so the plan fixes the actual source, not just the symptom of the week.
The Honest Truth
Waiting on jaw pain doesn’t let the joint reset.
If you keep waiting
- The clicking turns into locking, and locking gets harder to release
- Your diet keeps shrinking to whatever doesn’t require much chewing
- Headaches and neck tension creep in, because the jaw doesn’t work alone
If you start this week
- You know the actual mechanical cause by the end of visit one
- Hands-on treatment starts easing the muscle tension right away
- You get a plan with an endpoint: real jaw mechanics fixed, not just a mouthguard
Nobody regrets starting too early. Every week, someone in our clinic says they regret waiting.
How We Fix It
The same four phases. Built for your jaw.
Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what the four phases look like for TMJ pain.
Weeks 2–5
Prime
Restore normal jaw mechanics.
Targeted mobility work retrains how the joint and disc move together through a full, pain-free range.
Weeks 5–8
Perform
Build the support around it.
Postural and jaw-stabilizing exercises correct the habits, like clenching or forward head posture, that overload the joint.
Weeks 8+
Prevent
Keep the clicking from coming back.
Your chewing, sleep position, and stress habits get addressed before you’re cleared: that’s the endpoint, not just another mouthguard.
Thank you, Nosheen! She is truly the best and genuinely cares about you. I felt so heard by her and always looked forward to my appointments. Since going to her, my TMJ pain is gone and my posture has improved. I’ve learned so much and I would recommend Specialized Physical Therapy to everyone.
Shared by Emma R. · TMJ/TMD
Week 1: eating soup and eggs only, jaw locking on the third bite
Week 6: back to steak night, no clicking, no locking
TMJ/TMD
6 weeks
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking for TMJ pain.
Usually not as a first step. Most TMJ pain comes from muscle tension and joint mechanics that a hands-on evaluation can identify directly. Imaging is reserved for cases where symptoms don’t respond to conservative care or a structural issue is suspected, and we’ll help you get it if that’s ever the case. You don’t have to wait on a referral to start feeling better.
Yes, with a few temporary adjustments. You don’t need to switch to a liquid diet forever, softening your food and pacing wide movements like yawning for a while helps calm things down while treatment addresses the actual cause. Your therapist will tell you exactly what to modify and for how long.
Most people notice less clicking and tension within the first few visits. A full plan for TMJ pain runs through all four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform, and Prevent, typically over 6 to 8 weeks, depending on how long you’ve been dealing with it. Either way, you get a plan with an endpoint, not an open-ended string of appointments.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and a real person calls you back, usually within two business hours. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.
- Hours Mon–Thu 8am–7pm, Fri 8am–2pm
- Prefer to talk now? Call either office. Cherry Hill 856-424-0993 Burlington 609-880-0880
- Same-week appointments available
5.0 · 607 Google reviews
Typical response: under 2 business hours
Step 1 of 6
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time. Most people are on the schedule same week.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Specialized Physical Therapy – Cherry Hill
Specialized Physical Therapy – Burlington
- 11 Cadillac Road, Burlington, NJ 08016 (opens in a new tab)
- 609-880-0880
- Fax: 609-227-4423
- frontdesk@specializedphysicaltherapy.com
- Mon–Thu 8am–7pm, Fri 8am–2pm