You've probably had a sore knee in February after you've been running your heart out thanks to your new years resolutions. The way to make your knee feel better is to stop running. The physical pounding of your body weight is traumatic to the joint and causes inflammation.

The TMJ is the same way... except it never gets a break. Think of how often you are eating, speaking, posturing and swallowing. Then, when the rest of your body gets to rest at night, your jaw goes into a sprint and grinds all night. There's just no rest for this joint!

A night time splint and muscle relaxants are a great way to give your jaw some rest at night. You need to do something during the day too: Enter the TMJ Diet.

After Surgery, you've got to be really tight on your diet. This is the time to give yourself lots of rich nutrients, a diet really high in protein for improved healing and a nice soft diet.

Studies advocate the following macronutrient profile in your after surgery diet:

Protein: 0.8 g/kg/d for ideal body weight, 1.0 to 1.8 g/kg/day postsurgery

Calories: 20 to 40 kcal/kg/d for normal adults, 30 to 45 kcal/kg/d postsurgery; 

Water: 30 to 40 mL/kg/d or approximately 2500 mL/d.

For a 150 pound adult, that means:

Protein: 54-70 grams of protein per day

Calories: 1360 to 2700 calories per day

Water: A little over 2 liters a day (think 2 liter soda bottle size)

A good rule of thumb is the fork test. If you can push the food through a fork, then you can eat it. Can Chicken be pushed through a fork? No. Chicken isn't on the list. The goal here is to prevent your teeth from coming together at all and keep your muscles from clenching entirely. Giving your TMJ's a rest is a huge step toward recovery.