Is Trismus Curable After Head & Neck Cancer Treatment?

The short answer is no. Trismus following treatment of a tumor is not curable. It can be challenging for a therapist to treat due to the levels of pain that are involved. It is important to work with a therapist who understands the innervation and etiology of trismus. Those are fancy words for why in the world does it hurt so bad to open my mouth.  

Trismus involves daily exercises and work to manage. Treating trismus is a lifelong job by the patient. However, once the therapist and the patient have developed an exercise program specific to your goals and tolerance this can be managed at home. The therapist will work with you to determine what oral opening device is indicated for you at home. Different devices include orastretch, therabite, ARKJ and jaw clamp. These devices are utilized to actively stretch the muscles that help us open our mouth.  

The therapist should guide you on increasing the complexity of your stretches and how long you hold your stretches based on your pain levels and tolerance. We utilize pain scales in our clinic for your daily tracking log. The pain is based on 0-10 and the goal is that your pain lessens as you stretch!