Are You Hypermobile?
A hypermobile joint is a joint that can bend beyond the typical range of movement.
Hypermobility can occur in a single joint or it can be systemic (throughout the entire body).
Common symptoms of jaw hyper mobility include PAIN and a loud “clunk” or "thud" when opening wide.
How to know if your jaw is hyper mobile? Measure!
A jaw that opens wider than 45mm (bottom front incisor to top front incisor) is hyper mobile. A quick way to test this is to see how many fingers fit in your mouth when opening to end range. Three fingers is approximately 45 mm. If you can fit four fingers or your whole fist (a cool party trick, but not recommended!) in your mouth, there's a good chance that your jaw is hyper mobile.
If the above sounds like you, the next step is to determine if the hyper mobility is throughout your whole body. A quick screen is the Beighton scale.
[NOTE: There’s some issue with The Beighton scale: (1) It only looks at 8 joints. And (2) sometimes the muscles are so tight/short from compensating for the joint/ligamentous laxity that some hyper mobile people may not score very high on this scale.]
Other things I screen in my clients to assess for hyper mobility include:
Skin elasticity
Frequent injuries, dislocations or sprains
Poor proprioception (often presents as clumsiness)
GI issues (IBS, GERD, constipation)
Dizziness, POTS
Mast Cell Activation (MCAS)
Chronic fatigue
A couple of my favorite resources for hyper mobility include the Hypermobility Health Coach and Melissa Koehl, PT
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