TMJ Treatment in West Omaha Nebraska

What’s TMJ/TMD?

Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ or TMD) is a condition affecting the jaw joint and the muscles that control jaw movement. According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, TMJ disorders affect more than 10 million Americans and can cause jaw pain, clicking or popping sounds, difficulty chewing, and in more severe cases, a jaw that locks open or closed. Headaches are also common.

But here’s what that definition doesn’t capture: the way a clicking jaw follows you through every meal and every conversation. The headaches you’ve learned to live with. Or the frustration of being handed a night guard and told that’s about all that can be done.

We see TMJ patients who’ve been bounced between dentists and doctors, often managing symptoms without anyone really looking at what’s driving them. If you’ve tried a mouth guard and still aren’t getting relief — or if you’ve been told it’s just stress — it’s worth looking deeper

Here’s what we’ve found: TMJ rarely exists in isolation. A jaw that clicks and locks is often connected to muscle tension, neck restrictions, or even gut health.

Dr. Gurbacki had her own experience with this. Her TMJ developed after a whiplash injury, and it was work on her neck, not just her jaw, that made the difference.

Below, we’ll walk through what commonly causes TMJ, what treatment can look like, and what to expect working with us.

What Causes TMJ?

So what’s actually causing your TMJ? Here’s what we typically find:

Jaw Misalignment

Your jaw is one bone, and it opens and closes along a track. Sitting inside that joint is a small piece of cartilage that’s supposed to move smoothly as your jaw opens and closes. When that cartilage gets stuck or shifts out of position, you get the clicking, popping, or locking that most TMJ patients know well. Often the jaw drifts to one side during movement — something most people haven’t noticed until someone actually watches for it.

Tight Surrounding Muscles

The muscles that control your jaw — including the pterygoid muscles on either side — can become chronically tight, especially when the joint itself is under stress. This tension often goes unaddressed, because most people don’t realize these muscles can be released. It’s one of the reasons TMJ can keep coming back even when the joint itself is being treated.

Neck and Upper Spine Issues

The jaw doesn’t work in isolation. Tension and restriction in the neck can directly affect how the jaw moves and how much pain you feel. Dr. Gurbacki experienced this herself after her whiplash injury — her TMJ symptoms didn’t resolve until the neck work caught up. If you’ve had a car accident, a fall, or any kind of head or neck injury, that history is worth looking at.

Teeth Grinding (Bruxism)

Many TMJ patients grind their teeth at night without realizing it. What’s less commonly known is that research is finding connections between teeth grinding and gut health — including parasites. It’s one of the reasons TMJ can sometimes be a sign that something deeper is going on, not just a jaw problem.

Hereditary Factors

Some people’s joint structure makes them more prone to TMJ issues. If it runs in your family, you’re not imagining it — and it doesn’t mean there’s nothing that can help. It may just mean that management looks different than for someone whose TMJ started after an injury.

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How We Treat TMJ

Once we understand what’s driving your symptoms, here are the treatments that may help:

Chiropractic Adjustment (Jaw)

Dr. Julie uses an activator, an instrument-assisted technique, to gently adjust both sides of the jaw, not just the side that hurts. She watches how your jaw tracks as you open and close, then targets the specific point where it starts to drift. Explore Chiropractic Care

Pterygoid Muscle Release

The muscles that control your jaw are often chronically tight and rarely addressed. Dr. Julie teaches you how to release them yourself at home — a simple technique that most TMJ patients find makes a noticeable difference between appointments.

Neck Adjustment

Because the jaw and neck are closely connected, restricted movement in the upper spine often contributes to TMJ symptoms. Addressing the neck is frequently a missing piece.

Acupuncture

Specific acupuncture points can help release tension in and around the jaw joint and surrounding muscles. Explore Acupuncture

Cold Laser Therapy

FDA-cleared for pain relief, cold laser can help reduce inflammation and discomfort in the jaw joint — often added alongside chiropractic or acupuncture. Explore Cold Laser Therapy

Functional Medicine (when relevant)

If teeth grinding is part of the picture, there may be an underlying gut health component worth investigating. We’ll look at the full picture and let you know if additional testing makes sense. Explore Functional Medicine

Not sure where to start? We’ll figure that out together at your first appointment.

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What to Expect

Your First Appointment

Your first visit is a full hour. We start by walking through your health history, symptoms, and what you’ve already tried — including diet, water intake, sleep, and stress, which all factor into how your body is holding tension.

From there, we do a full chiropractic examination — not just the jaw, but the whole spine — to make sure nothing else is contributing and that it’s safe to proceed. We’ll watch how your jaw tracks as you open and close it, noting whether it drifts or shifts before she targets specific points. Most patients get adjusted at that first appointment.

We also do muscle work on every patient to help relax the surrounding tissue before and during the adjustment, and may add flexion-distraction to help loosen things up further. If you’ve never been adjusted before, we walk you through what to expect. By the end of the visit, you’ll have a clear picture of what we found and what we recommend next.

Does It Hurt?

The jaw adjustment itself is instrument-assisted, not manual, so most people find it more comfortable than they expected. The muscle release work — which we show you how to do at home — can be uncomfortable at first, especially if those muscles are very tight. You’re in control of the pressure.

How Many Visits?

It depends on how long you’ve had it and what’s driving it. Some patients feel a meaningful difference after a handful of visits. Chronic or hereditary cases take longer. As a general framework,we typically sees patient more frequently at first, then taper down as things improve — from weekly to every other week to monthly maintenance, depending on where you land.

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One Patient’s Story

One of our chiropractic patients had been getting Botox injections in her jaw for TMJ. Not for cosmetic reasons, but because the pain and constant popping every time she opened her mouth had become that difficult to live with. She’d never mentioned it before. It was only after being a patient for a while that she brought it up.

We started working on her jaw directly. Over time, the severity decreased noticeably — something the Botox alone hadn’t been able to accomplish.

It’s a good example of what can happen when the jaw is actually addressed structurally, not just managed.