Understanding the link between jaw pain and hip tension
An exploration of how understanding whole-body patterns can support people living with persistent jaw pain.
Steven Murdoch
Noticing patterns beyond the jaw
People with jaw pain don’t usually seek out treatment for their hips. It’s often through treatment — and through noticing how their body responds — that a relationship between jaw pain and hip tension becomes clearer.
In my work with persistent pain, this isn’t about one area “causing” another. It reflects how the body organises itself under long-term strain, stress, or sensitivity, and how tension and protective patterns can show up in more than one place.
This article explores why jaw pain and hip discomfort can sometimes be linked, and what that understanding can offer when managing persistent pain — without chasing individual symptoms or trying to “fix” every part.
I didn’t set out to specialise in jaw pain
My training began with a broad focus on musculoskeletal pain, not with the intention of specialising in jaw-related symptoms.
My route into this work was shaped by my own experience of persistent low back pain in my late teens, and by discovering how approaches such as myofascial release could help when pain had become long-standing. That experience led me into training with a wider interest in how persistent pain shows up and is maintained.
I initially expected to work across a broad range of musculoskeletal issues in my North London clinic. Over time, and through further training and clinical experience, work with jaw pain and TMJ-related symptoms became a more significant part of my practice — not through intention, but through recognising recurring patterns in people living with persistent pain.
What is TMJ Dysfunction?
TMJ refers to the temporomandibular joints — the joints just in front of the ears that connect the jaw to the skull. TMJ dysfunction (often shortened to TMD) is a broad term used to describe ongoing jaw-related symptoms involving the joint itself, the surrounding muscles, or how the jaw is being used.
Symptoms can include jaw pain, stiffness, limited or uncomfortable movement, and sensations such as clicking or popping. For some people, symptoms are felt beyond the jaw and may include headaches, facial pain, ear-related symptoms, or a general sense of tension around the head and neck.
The jaw plays a role in everyday activities such as speaking, eating, and breathing, which means it is rarely at rest. In people living with persistent pain, jaw symptoms are often part of a wider pattern involving muscle tension, sensitivity, and protective habits rather than a single isolated problem.
Many people live with jaw pain, but progress isn’t always straightforward
When I began working more with jaw pain, I was struck by how common it was. A lot of people were dealing with ongoing jaw symptoms and looking for help.
What I also noticed fairly quickly was that progress wasn’t consistent. Some people felt clear improvements, while others didn’t see the changes they were hoping for, even when the jaw itself had been treated carefully.
That didn’t feel like a technical problem to solve. It felt like a sign that jaw pain, especially when it’s long-standing, doesn’t always respond to being treated in isolation. That realisation pushed me to look more closely at the wider patterns involved in persistent pain.
How I came across Helen Baker’s whole-body approach to TMJ pain
When I started looking more deeply into TMJ work, it was hard not to come across Helen Baker and her work at tmjmassagetherapies.com.
What stood out wasn’t just the techniques, but Helen’s own story. Her journey into jaw pain work began after dislocating her jaw while eating a bread roll — but rather than focusing on that single event, she stepped back and looked at what was happening in her life more broadly at the time.
Stress, overload, and long-term strain were central to her experience, and her improvement came through a more holistic, whole-body approach rather than treating the jaw in isolation.
Very quickly, it became clear to me that Helen was someone worth learning from. Choosing to train with her felt like an easy decision.
Three things, in particular, stood out:
- Her genuine care and commitment to the people she works with
- Her lived experience of persistent jaw pain
- Her clear, whole-body approach to TMJ dysfunction
The training itself was an excellent fit for how I already worked. The emphasis wasn’t on force or correction, but on understanding patterns across the body — including gentle hands-on work, myofascial techniques, and the role of the nervous system.
It reinforced something that has stayed central to my work since: jaw pain is rarely just a local jaw problem.
The connection between hips and jaw pain
One aspect of Helen’s work that resonated with me was the emphasis on the hips — not because it was entirely new, but because it helped something click.
My broader training in clinical massage had already been grounded in whole-body, holistic work with complex pain. My earlier TMJ training was also holistic in principle. Yet, despite that foundation, my results with jaw pain were inconsistent. Something important wasn’t quite translating into practice.
Working through Helen’s approach helped bring existing ideas together in a way that made more sense clinically. It sharpened how I thought about patterns — particularly how tension, protection, and sensitivity can be shared across the body rather than confined to one joint.
In practice, addressing areas such as the hips can sometimes change how the jaw feels and moves. Not because the hips are “causing” jaw pain, but because long-standing pain often reflects how the whole system is organising itself under load.
There is some research that supports this wider view. A small 2022 study found an association between TMJ clicking and popping and changes at the sacroiliac joint in people with TMD. This doesn’t point to a simple cause-and-effect relationship, but it does reinforce the limits of treating jaw pain in isolation.
Several mechanisms may help explain these patterns. One is connective tissue (fascia), which forms continuous pathways from the jaw through the trunk to the pelvis. Another is the nervous system, including pathways involved in posture, breathing, stress, and emotional regulation.
What ultimately shifted my outcomes wasn’t adopting a completely new way of thinking — it was integrating and applying what I already understood more clearly. Jaw pain began to make sense as part of a whole-body response, rather than a local problem that needed fixing in isolation.
Witnessing the hips–jaw connection in practice
Because I see so many people with jaw pain, I was able to start applying this way of working straight away. I already worked holistically, but in practice my early sessions tended to stay fairly local — inside the mouth, around the jaw, and through the neck and shoulders.
If I’m honest, I didn’t expect a dramatic change when I began paying more attention to the hips. It felt like a small adjustment rather than a major shift.
What surprised me was how quickly things changed. When I started working more deliberately with hip tension, jaw symptoms often eased during the same session. Clients noticed it before I said anything — a sense of space, movement, or softness returning to the jaw.
That was the moment it became clear that this wasn’t about adding another technique. It was about seeing the pattern more clearly, and responding to the body as a connected system rather than a collection of separate parts.
The real life connection between Hips and Jaw Pain
I could give examples of a number of clients who have experienced transformative results. However, I think Jane (not her real name), who was my case study during the training, stands out. Jane has had issues since she was a child and is now in her mid-sixties.
Like many TMJ clients, Jane’s story is complex. In early life she had jaw realignment treatment which was incredibly traumatic. Several whiplash injuries in her lifetime have contributed to postural issues and jaw clenching.
We’d been working together for a while and had seen some improvements in her pain levels, but she still felt her mandible was unnaturally retracted and her bite was misaligned.
We pretty much followed the new protocol, including releasing tension in the hips. During the session Jane experienced significant relaxation and softening in the jaw, neck, and shoulders, and reported feeling she needed less effort to sit comfortably. There was a lot of yawning, laughter, and overall joy.
Furthermore, Jane reported a release on the left side of the jaw during work on her left glute medius hip muscles, and a pelvic opening sensation while addressing the lateral pterygoid. The lateral pterygoid is a key jaw muscle which can be accessed safely with intraoral techniques.
When I followed up with Jane a few days after our session, she was ecstatic that she could open her mouth wider than three fingers for the first time ever. She found walking was easier. Her mouth was softer and chewing was easier.
I think this is more than Jane and I could have imagined with just one session of the new protocol.
What this means for understanding persistent jaw pain
Experiences like Jane’s helped clarify something important for me. When jaw pain has been present for a long time, it rarely exists in isolation. The body adapts around it — through posture, muscle tone, movement patterns, and the way tension is held elsewhere.
In this context, working with the hips isn’t about treating a separate problem. It’s about recognising how long-standing protective patterns can become organised across the whole body, and how easing tension in one area can allow change in another.
This perspective shifts the focus away from chasing symptoms or searching for a single faulty structure. Instead, it invites a broader, more supportive way of working — one that respects how the nervous system, muscles, and joints respond to stress, pain, and lived experience over time.
For people living with persistent jaw pain, this can be reassuring. It helps explain why local treatments don’t always lead to lasting change, and why a whole-body approach can sometimes open the door to progress that previously felt out of reach.
What changed when I started working with the body differently
Spending time really understanding TMJ pain — and staying curious about how it shows up across the body — has changed how I work. Not dramatically, but meaningfully. It reinforced the value of stepping back, looking beyond the jaw itself, and paying attention to patterns that sit elsewhere, including the hips.
I was already working holistically, but shifting my focus slightly helped things fall into place. Outcomes became more consistent, sessions felt less effortful for clients, and progress sometimes happened more quickly than expected — not because I was doing more, but because I was working with the body as a system rather than a collection of parts.
For people living with persistent jaw pain, this perspective can be reassuring. It helps explain why approaches that focus narrowly on the jaw don’t always lead to lasting change, and why a whole-body approach can sometimes open up possibilities that hadn’t been obvious before.
This way of working continues to evolve. What matters most is staying responsive — to the person in front of me, to what their body is telling us, and to the understanding that persistent pain rarely has a single cause or a simple solution.
References and Further Reading
Aggarwal, A., Jayshri Gadekar and Pradnya Kakodkar (2020). Role of myofascial release technique on mobility and function in temporomandibular joint disorder patients with neck pain. Journal of dental research and reviews, [online] 7(5), pp.84–87.
Aggeler, M. (2024). Does your jaw click? Do you grind your teeth? It could be this little-known condition. [online] the Guardian.
Alrizqi, A.H. and Aleissa, B.M. (2023). Prevalence of Temporomandibular Disorders Between 2015-2021: A Literature Review. Cureus, [online] 15(4).
Fischer, M.J., Riedlinger, K., Gutenbrunner, C. and Bernateck, M. (2009). Influence of the Temporomandibular Joint on Range of Motion of the Hip Joint in Patients With Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, [online] 32(5), pp.364–371.
Garstka, A.A., Brzózka, M., Bitenc-Jasiejko, A., Ardan, R., Gronwald, H., Skomro, P. and Lietz-Kijak, D. (2022). Cause-Effect Relationships between Painful TMD and Postural and Functional Changes in the Musculoskeletal System: A Preliminary Report. Pain Research & Management, [online] 2022(2022), p.1429932.
Prott, L.S., Spitznagel, F.A., Hugger, A., Langner, R., Gierthmühlen, P.C. and Mortimer Gierthmühlen (2024). Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of myoarthropatic symptoms in patients with craniomandibular dysfunction – a protocol for a randomized and controlled pilot trial. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, [online] 10(1).