The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook Quotes

“Travell and Simons link tinnitus (ringing in the ears) to trigger points in the sternocleidomastoid, masseter, and lateral pterygoid muscles. They quote studies showing that trigger point injection with procaine can completely relieve the condition. The key muscle may be the lateral pterygoid, which is very well hidden by the jawbone. Massage to the muscle is not difficult, though.”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“The function of the lateral pterygoid muscles is to help the digastric muscles open the jaw as well as project the lower jaw forward. When only one side of the lateral pterygoid contracts, it causes a lateral, or sideways, deviation of the jaw to the opposite side. Malocclusion, or mismatching bite of the top and bottom teeth, can occur with trigger points in these muscles. Trigger points are created in the lateral pterygoids when you have trouble breathing through your nose and must keep your mouth open in order to breathe. Satellite trigger points set up in the front of the face by the lateral pterygoids may account for much of the face pain that comes with allergies. Major dental work that stresses jaw muscles by requiring you to hold your mouth open for long periods of time can be the unsuspected cause of long-term chronic pain in the face and jaws. Trigger points in masseter and temporalis muscles can cause trigger points to develop in the lateral pterygoids by making them work harder to open the mouth (Simons, Travell, and Simons 1999).”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“The other pterygoid muscle, the lateral pterygoid, is the number one myofascial source of pain and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction (figure 4.45). Constant trigger point–generated tension in the lateral pterygoids tends to pull the lower jaw forward and disarticulate, or partially dislocate, the joint. Popping or clicking in the jaw is the result of this and displacement of the meniscus, which is the articular disc that separates the jaw bone from the skull and allows for movement in the joint. As with the masseter, trigger points in the lateral pterygoid refer pain to the cheek, mimicking sinus pain. They can also stimulate sinus secretions. Many “sinus attacks” are simply the effects of lateral pterygoid trigger points (Simons, Travell, and Simons 1999; Reynolds 1981; Marbach 1972).”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“Systemic symptoms–both branches (figures 4.2 and 4.3). A sixth group of symptoms from sternocleidomastoid trigger points can include disturbed perception of the amount of weight carried in the hands, cold sweat on the forehead, and the generation of excess mucus in the sinuses, nasal cavities, and throat. They can be the simple explanation for your sinus congestion, sinus drainage, phlegm in the throat, chronic cough, and continual hay fever or cold symptoms. A persistent dry cough can often be stopped with massage to the sternal branch near its attachment to the breastbone (Simons, Travell, and Simons 1999). Causes”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“Auditory disturbances–clavicular branch (figure 4.3). Clavicular trigger points can be a cause of unilateral deafness or hearing loss on the side where these trigger points exist. This is thought to be due to referred tension in the tiny stapedius and tensor tympani muscles that attach to the equally tiny bones of the middle ear. Tension in these little muscles could inhibit vibration in the inner ear. Massage of the jaw muscles and the sternocleidomastoids has been known to bring back normal hearing when trigger points were to blame for the problem (Simons, Travell, and Simons 1999). Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, can also be caused by trigger points in the SCM, lateral pterygoid, or masseter muscle of the jaw.”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“Often given a diagnosis of vertigo, or Ménière’s disease, it can become a lifelong recurrent condition, defying all treatments and medical explanations. The myofascial explanation is that differences in tension in the clavicular branch of the sternocleidomastoid muscles help with your spatial orientation, keeping track of the position of your head. When aberrant tensions in the muscles are caused by trigger points, confusing signals are sent to the brain. Dr. Travell believed that the distorted perception caused by sternocleidomastoid trigger points were a hidden cause of falls and motor vehicle accidents.”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“Muscles that are especially vulnerable should be treated before you play as well as afterward.”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“There’s almost always a calmer and ultimately more efficient way to do something if you just stop and think about it.”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“holding your book over your head while you lie down will all cause low-level constant contraction of several muscle groups.”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“The only way to reliably verify whether a specific trigger point is causing a specific pain is to deactivate the trigger point and see if the pain remains.”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“It helps to know that trigger points form in specific places, where the motor nerve comes into the muscle to tell the muscle to do its job. This location is not always tender. It hurts only when a trigger point is present, and then only when pressed on. So, when practicing self-applied trigger point massage, you don’t have to go by what your fingers palpate—feel for the place that hurts.”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“Trigger point massage works by accomplishing three things: it breaks into the chemical and neurological feedback loop that maintains the muscle contraction; it increases circulation that has been restricted by the contracted tissue; and it directly stretches the trigger point’s knotted muscle fibers.”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“The difficulty in treating trigger points is that they typically send pain to some other site.”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“Travell and Simons describe a trigger point as simply a small contracture knot in muscle tissue”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

“Here are some examples of long, over-stretched muscles at odds with short, tight muscles: rhomboids versus pectoralis major infraspinatus and teres minor versus subscapularis and pectoralis major superficial spinal muscles versus abdominal muscles hamstrings versus the rectus femoris triceps versus the biceps supinator versus pronator teres”
― Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief