TMJ – Skull Shape

Here are a few instances of how a life event can cause your skull to shift shape:

• Injury Or Trauma: A blow to the head can cause damage to the jaw joints along with the skull. Whiplash, or anything that impacts how you carry your head on the top of your neck, can cause jaw problems.
• Birth: Being born is no easy task. The journey a baby takes from the uterus through the narrow birth canal can result in a great amount of force placed on the baby’s skull. This is especially true when the delivery is in a head-first position. While nature does its best to mitigate the pressure with a soft and pliable skull, if the pressure was intense enough (every birth is different), it could result in a misalignment of your baby’s jaws bones.
• Growing: Since every part of the skull is interconnected – bones, muscles, ligaments and joints – any alteration during the growth and development of your baby’s skull can result in misalignment of the jaws, and an early onset of TMJ.

When a jaw misalignment occurs in a baby or small child, it often goes unnoticed until the child can communicate the symptoms they are experiencing.