Chronic Neck Pain?
Why the Jaw May Be Part of the Problem
When people think about chronic neck pain, they usually think of things like poor posture, too much time on a phone or computer, stress, sleeping in an awkward position, or muscle tension from everyday life. Those are all very real causes. But there is another area that often gets overlooked: the jaw.
This may surprise a lot of people. Most patients do not immediately connect neck pain with the jaw. But the truth is that the jaw, head, and neck are closely linked. They move together, they share muscles and nerves, and problems in one area can sometimes affect the others. That means some people with ongoing neck pain may benefit from treatment that looks beyond the neck alone.
A recent study published in the Journal of Pain Research explored this exact idea. Researchers looked at whether adding jaw exercises to a program of neck stabilization exercises would help people with chronic neck pain. Both groups improved, which is good news. But the people who did the jaw exercises as well showed greater improvement in some important areas, including pain sensitivity, balance, and neck position awareness, also called proprioception (Canli et al., 2026).
That is important because chronic neck pain is often about more than just pain. It can also involve stiffness, poor muscle control, reduced endurance, a feeling of being “tight all the time,” headaches, tension, and even changes in balance or posture. Many people also notice symptoms that seem unrelated at first, such as jaw tightness, clenching, facial tension, or discomfort around the base of the skull and upper shoulders.
What is chronic neck pain?
Chronic neck pain usually means neck pain that has lasted more than three months. For some people it begins after an injury. For others it develops gradually over time. It may come from long hours at a desk, poor movement habits, repetitive strain, stress, or muscle imbalances. Sometimes there is no single cause. Instead, the problem develops slowly as the body adapts to tension, posture, and overload.
When neck pain becomes ongoing, it can affect much more than comfort. It can make it harder to sleep, work, exercise, drive, concentrate, and enjoy daily life. Some people begin avoiding movement because they are worried they will make things worse. Others feel like the pain is always “just there,” even if they are trying stretching, massage, or rest.
That is why it is so important to understand the full picture. If the neck is being affected by what is happening in the jaw, shoulders, or posture, then treating only one area may not be enough.
So how is the jaw connected to the neck?
The jaw does not work alone. Every time you open your mouth, chew, clench, swallow, speak, or yawn, your jaw is working together with the muscles of your face, throat, and neck. Jaw movement is not just a local movement. It is part of a coordinated system involving the head and cervical spine.
The study explains that there is both an anatomical and neurological relationship between the jaw and neck. In simple terms, the muscles and joints in these regions influence each other, and there are shared nerve pathways that help explain why symptoms can overlap (Canli et al., 2026). This helps us understand why someone with chronic neck pain may also have jaw tension, and why someone with jaw dysfunction may develop neck pain.
This does not mean that every patient with neck pain has a TMJ problem. It also does not mean that every patient with jaw tension will have neck pain. But it does mean that the connection is real and worth paying attention to, especially when symptoms are not fully resolving.
What did the study find?
In this study, 62 adults with chronic neck pain were divided into two groups. One group did cervical stabilization exercises. These are exercises designed to improve control, strength, and support in the neck. The other group did the same neck stabilization program, but also added a set of jaw exercises called Rocabado exercises for six weeks (Canli et al., 2026).
The researchers measured several important things before and after treatment, including:
pain intensity
pressure pain threshold and tolerance
balance
neck movement
muscle endurance
neck disability
cervical proprioception (which is the body’s ability to sense neck position and movement)
The results were encouraging.
Both groups improved after treatment. That tells us that neck stabilization exercises are helpful for people with chronic neck pain. Participants in both groups had less pain, better neck movement, better muscle endurance, and less disability after the six-week program (Canli et al., 2026).
But the group that added jaw exercises improved more in some key areas. They had greater improvement in pressure pain sensitivity, balance, and proprioception. In other words, their tissues became less sensitive, and their bodies became better at controlling position and movement (Canli et al., 2026).
That may sound technical, but it matters a lot in real life. When your body has better muscle control and better awareness of movement, everyday tasks often feel easier. People may feel less stiff, less guarded, less off-balance, and more confident moving around.
Why would jaw exercises help the neck?
That is the question many patients would naturally ask.
One reason may be that jaw exercises help improve coordination in the broader head-neck system. If the jaw is tense, poorly positioned, or not moving well, it may place extra demand on nearby muscles. Over time, that can affect posture, muscle activation, and movement patterns.
Another reason may be that the jaw joint and surrounding muscles provide important sensory information to the nervous system. The body is constantly using information from muscles and joints to decide how to position the head and neck. If the jaw is not functioning well, that may affect how the body controls posture and movement. The study authors suggest that improving jaw function may influence postural control and sensorimotor function, which may help explain the improvements seen in balance and proprioception (Canli et al., 2026).
For patients, the simple message is this: sometimes the jaw is part of the reason the neck keeps struggling.
What does this mean for treatment?
It means that a good assessment matters.
At the Muscle and Joint Clinic, when someone comes in with chronic neck pain, the goal should not just be to chase the sore spot. The real goal is to understand why the pain is there in the first place. That may involve looking at posture, movement habits, deep neck muscle control, upper trapezius tension, shoulder mechanics, breathing, and in some cases jaw function as well.
If a patient is also clenching, grinding, getting headaches, noticing jaw tension, or feeling tightness around the temples, cheeks, or under the jaw, it may make sense to assess those areas too. This is especially true if progress has been slow or incomplete.
Treatment depends on the individual, but it may include a combination of manual therapy, targeted rehab exercises, posture correction, jaw-related exercises, muscle release techniques, and education. Patients may also benefit from learning how stress, posture, clenching, workstation setup, and movement habits are affecting the problem.
The key point is that care should be personalized. Not every patient needs jaw exercises. But some do, and the study suggests that the right patient may see meaningful added benefit when jaw-focused rehab is included (Canli et al., 2026).
Why this matters for everyday patients
This study is helpful because it reflects something many people experience without realizing it. They may have neck pain, but they also feel tight through the jaw. Or they may get headaches and feel like their neck is always tired. Some people feel like their posture is hard to maintain, no matter how much they try to “sit up straight.” Others have a constant sense of tension that never fully settles.
When the jaw and neck are working poorly together, those symptoms can linger.
The encouraging part is that this also opens the door to better treatment. If the full problem is understood, care can be more targeted and more effective. Instead of treating the neck in isolation, we can treat the system more completely.
The bottom line
Chronic neck pain is not always just a neck problem. For some people, the jaw may be part of the story.
The study shows that adding jaw exercises to a neck stabilization program led to better improvement in pain sensitivity, balance, and neck position awareness compared with neck exercises alone (Canli et al., 2026). That supports the idea that the jaw and neck are closely connected, and that treatment may work better when both are considered.
For patients, that is an important reminder. If you have been dealing with chronic neck pain, headaches, jaw tightness, clenching, upper shoulder tension, or a sense that your body never fully relaxes, it may be worth looking at more than just the neck itself.
Sometimes the missing piece is not far away at all.
Reference
Canli, M., Özüdoğru, A., Alkan, H., & Cigdem-Karacay, B. (2026). Effectiveness of jaw exercises applied in addition to cervical stabilization exercises in individuals with chronic neck pain: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Pain Research, 19, 584088. https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S584088