Meet A TMJ PT Specialist

Speaker 2 0:30

My name is Shera Weiss and my clinic is called Nova Motion Physical Therapy. And we treat anyone suffering from jaw pain, neck pain, or facial pain, headaches, as well as women's health issues and pelvic floor issues.

Speaker 0:44

That's wonderful. I can't wait to learn more about just everything you do. Shera, for listeners meeting you for the first time, can you share a little about your background and what led you into physical therapy?

Speaker 2 0:56

Sure. Um, in high school I took a sports medicine class. And, um, I loved learning about anatomy. I thought it was pretty cool that it was like very black or white. There's not a whole lot of gray area. And, um, started volunteering at a PT clinic and realized this is like a very active job. It's a very social job. Every day is different. And, um, that really attracted me to the field. So I got a degree in exercise and sports science at University of Delaware, and then went to Washington University in St. Louis. For the doctorate in PT program and I graduated in 2005.

Speaker 1:32

Wow, that's amazing. I feel like it was just really your calling.

Speaker 2 1:36

Yes. Absolutely.

Treating Pro Hockey Players

Speaker 1:38

Wonderful. And at one point you even had the opportunity to work closely with professional athletes even stepping into environments like the locker room with the Washington Capitals. What was that experience like for you and how did it shape your career? Actually,

Speaker 2 1:53

I should say it wasn't the locker room, but it was the training room. So I worked in general outpatient orthopedics, um, for about 18 years. And um, I grew up here and I am a CAPS fan and that was always my dream. And I got hired by a company who was owned by the former athletic trainer of the cab. So I had an opportunity to go in and treat some of the players over the course of three years that I worked there. And that was a very cool experience, kind of being like the person in charge, in the training room with people that I watched on TV and had been cheering on for you know, most of my life.

Why She Opened Nova Motion

Speaker 2:30

Oh, that's so wonderful. Congratulations. Thanks. And after many years in traditional in-network clinics, you decided to create something different with Nova Motion Physical Therapy. What inspired you to make that transition into business ownership?

Speaker 2 2:48

Yeah, that was never really what I wanted to do with my career until I decided to. Focus more on, um, learning how to treat the TM joint. So temporomandibular joint is a joint that is just not discussed very much in general orthopedics, and we don't learn a whole lot about it in physical therapy school. But I myself suffered from TMJ issues and kind of always had been searching some opportunities for clinical education after I had been working to learn how to treat it. And so when I. Found a course and realized that this could be a board specialty. I said, oh, this is gonna be really, really cool. I was at a point in my career where I wanted to slow down a little bit um. In network PT can be really, really busy and I always thrived off of what I called controlled chaos in that really busy like athletic sports environment. But once I started this specialty, I started seeing how much the this patient population really needs to be in a one-on-one environment with a lot of attention and being an active listener for them to really pick up on. Certain pieces of their case and develop a treatment plan. And that kind of seemed like something I really wanted to do for the rest of my career. Um, in trying to find like the perfect job where I could treat less patients and spend more time with them, I realized that I can just create that. And so in August of 2023, I opened my practice with this as a specialty.

Speaker 4:17

Wow. Yeah. I mean, you're able to speak from personal experience and I think that that just makes it that much more in depth what you're able to provide because you've been there, you've been on that side of it as well.

Speaker 2 4:27

Yes. I feel like a lot of my patients have, um, gone from healthcare professional to healthcare professional. Um, over and over again, my average patient has already seen five different practitioners by the time they have come to my office. And a lot of people are medically gaslit. A lot of people are very afraid they have pain in a region that nobody seems to be able to address. And when they find the right professional, it can be incredibly rewarding. At the same time, once people have an issue for a long period of time, that can progress to more and more pain. And so it ends up being like a really, um, we develop a really, really nice working relationship with our patients, trying to educate them on why they hurt and be able to follow a process to get them out of pain.

Speaker 5:10

For sure. I feel like there's so many things we do, you know, during the day or with our lifestyle that we may not even realize might contribute to it as well. So being able to just be more informed about it. Sure. And know. What we can do at home too as well to kind of help.

Speaker 2 5:24

Yeah, I mean, good posture is really helpful. I think a lot of people are sitting at a desk and they tend to sit forward with their chin on their hands, which is not good. Biting your nails, chewing gum all day. Those are, you know, sleeping with your head kind of like slouched forward. Like those are things that can contribute to some problems over time, like cervicogenic headaches and maybe even some jaw dysfunction. And that's always part of education that we give our patients.

Speaker 5:49

Yeah. Absolutely. And with TMJ and Orofacial pain, they're often misunderstood or overlooked. For someone who may be experiencing symptoms, are there any other signs they should look out for and shouldn't ignore?

Speaker 2 6:04

Yeah, I'd say one of the most common things that we see a lot of our people who, um, have a click in their jaw and someone says, oh, you've got a click and you need to have that address. But a click is just indicative of the disc position in your jaw. And so it having a click that isn't impeding with your function, like chewing, yawning, talking, singing kissing or causing pain is. Something that we call benign, so we educate our patients on that. But if you're experiencing painful clicking, any kind of locking where you can't open or fully close your mouth, um, where all of a sudden your teeth don't line up and it's associated with pain in your cheek those can be signs of jaw dysfunction that we need to address. Let's say more commonly, we end up with people who have muscular symptoms that are along the sides of the head and the temples along the cheeks, and then maybe in the neck or the back of the head, and then that can contribute to headaches as well.

Speaker 6:58

Wow. Okay. A lot of moving parts and pieces that are, that are involved in it. Yes.

Speaker 2 7:02

Yep.

Coordinating Care With Dentists

Speaker 7:02

That's great to know. And your practice takes a highly specialized and collaborative approach working alongside dental professionals and other providers. How does that integrated care model benefit your.

Speaker 2 7:16

When you have a good line of communication open with other providers, this always benefits patients. They really feel like they're well taken care of. I work very closely with A TMJ surgeon in the area, and a couple or facial pain specialists in the area, and then a. Lots of dentists. This area has a lot of dentists and I've marketed to a lot of them and just wanna let them know like, Hey, this is something that I like to treat. I will communicate with you what I think is going on and take into consideration the things that you wanna do from the dental perspective. And a lot of dentists don't even know that a professional like me exists. And so they're, they're happy to have places to send patients to.

Speaker 7:57

Yeah. Absolutely. That's a really good just collaboration of professionals. Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:00

Yes.

Speaker 8:01

To be able to really just diagnose and take a look at the full thing together.

Speaker 2 8:04

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 8:06

One of the most powerful things you mentioned is that patients often say they feel truly heard in your practice. Why is that such a core part of your mission?

Speaker 2 8:16

I feel like in today's healthcare, you are rushed in and out of offices so much and you go in and you might have something you wanna say, and then all of a sudden the doctor is gone and you didn't get a chance to say it, and you can't communicate that with the doctor, or you have to book another appointment to communicate with it. And I, I hate when people don't feel heard, because I feel like listening to what someone is feeling will give you so many hints as to what's important to them. So that you can set up your goals for them for treatment and what they wanna get back to. And being heard and cared for is one of the, the missions of my company.

Speaker 8:56

I think that that's amazing. Just really taking the time to listen and give that quality care.

Speaker 2 9:01

Yes.

Speaker 9:01

So you can. Get all your questions out and have them be answered.

Speaker 2 9:04

Yeah. You

Speaker 9:05

know,

Speaker 2 9:05

and if a patient wants to come in and talk for 45 minutes and I only get to touch them for maybe 10 or 15, if that is what they feel like they need to do in order to drive how I treat them, then they are welcome to do that, and we have the time and space to allow that to happen.

One On One Care Vs Clinics

Speaker 9:21

That's wonderful. You know, with that there's been a noticeable shift within the physical therapy world toward more personalized one-on-one care. How is that model different from, you know, traditional settings and why does it matter so much?

Speaker 2 9:37

A lot of traditional in network PT will. Book a patient per half hour. So you have 30 minutes one-on-one with someone and you know if people are late, if they're parking, if they get hung up at the front desk with any kind of payment or scheduling, and then they come back and they have a long story to tell you, they might be in tears, they might have some kind of background with PTSD trauma and then all of a sudden you have another. Patient there, and it's really challenging to try to to to work that out. Now in a traditional setting, when there's a lot of athletes in a room and you have a lot of gym space with exercises, this may not be as important, but in my setting, I want to be able to be in control of their exercises and know that they're doing everything right so that they can feel good leaving. Now, I think that in today's healthcare when, um. Doctors and other different types of healthcare professionals are seeing more and more patients than you get less and less one-on-one time. And I think that the general public is, you know, they're smart consumers. They want to have their questions answered and they wanna have that one-on-one time. And so they value that time with you as a skilled professional. And they know that value and they don't mind paying out of pocket to be able to get that.

Speaker 10:54

Get that quality care. Mm-hmm. That's so amazing that you're able to offer that to your patients and be able to give that kind of care to the community.

Speaker 2 11:01

Yes. Okay.

Speaker 11:02

And you know, many people don't realize that there are non-invasive options for treating TMJ. What are some of the alternatives you offer that people might not be aware of?

Speaker 2 11:12

So we do a lot of hands-on work with our patients to calm the nervous system down'cause that's a big part of what we treat. We do, um, a lot of pointed muscle manipulation and muscle work with our hands. And we do intraoral and extraoral work. We also offer dry needling. Which is a skill that we have in our toolbox, which takes a small filament needle and goes directly into muscle tissue to release tension, which can be very, very effective on a lot of the jaw and head and neck muscles.

Speaker 11:44

That's so fascinating. There's so many different options to be able to try out and see what's best, non-invasive options

Speaker 2 11:50

as well. Right, and a lot of patients really need education on how to be more in control of their bodies. So we do a lot of neuromuscular reeducation in order to teach people how to better control their jaw, their tongue, their neck, postural strengthening exercises. Those are all tools we have in our toolbox.

Speaker 12:07

Oh, that's so important. I feel like in just maintaining everything as well.

Speaker 2 12:11

Yes. We wanna give people the tools to be able to maintain how they feel through a lifetime.

Speaker 12:17

Wonderful. And you know, you're clear, you're very clearly passionate about helping people regain everyday functions, like you said, whether that's eating, comfortably speaking or even something you know, like as personal as kissing. What does it mean to you to be a part of

Speaker 2 12:34

those transformations? That like makes my day when someone can tell me I ate a steak, I gave a presentation and didn't get fatigued. Or even I could make out with my partner and not have my jaw lock. Because those are really simple everyday things that we, most of the time don't think about. But when something interferes with that, you think about it constantly. So that like when people hit their goals, that like, that really hits, that makes me feel really, really good.

Speaker 13:02

Yeah.'cause those are a lot of things that we can just kind of take for granted too. Yeah. Like you don't even think about if you're not experiencing those issues.

Speaker 2 13:09

Right.

Speaker 13:10

Very cool. And as Nova Motion Physical Therapy continues to expand its impact, what are you most excited about in this season of your business?

Speaker 2 13:20

So we have a full-time therapist on board right now and she also has a pelvic floor specialty. We als we see a lot of people who have jaw pain and pelvic floor pain and um, this is something that we share patients to treat different parts of the body. She works a lot on. Breath work, which can be huge. And she also has an ultrasound that, not for babies, but that shows activation of core muscles, which is a great tool for biofeedback. And this summer we are adding another therapist who also has, um, the same type of certification that I do, which is called a certified cervical and temporomandibular therapist. So there's only 65 of us in the country and mostly Canada, a couple other countries as well. And so to have two of us in the Northern Virginia area is, is really, really special. And so she's gonna, um, come on board with us in June.

Speaker 14:12

Oh, that's awesome. And congratulations to her.

Speaker 2 14:14

Thank you.

Speaker 14:15

Very cool. Very cool. Of. A great group of people you've got together? Yes,

Speaker 2 14:19

we are obsessed with our team. We have a fabulous administrative assistant and the, so far, the three of us, we are just like a little family

How To Book And Follow

Speaker 14:26

and we have a lot of fun working together. There is nothing better than that. Yes. Just having that like cohesion and harmony. Yes, absolutely. And for anyone listening who may be struggling with TMJ or facial pain or looking for a more personalized physical therapy experience. Where can they find you

Speaker 2 14:46

and learn more? So our website is nova motion physical therapy.com and that'll give you all the information. You can book online or it has our phone number and you can reach out to Monica, our patient care coordinator, and she will help you get set up with a discovery call. We always like to chat. Talk with our patients beforehand to make sure that we are a good match and you're seeing the right professional, and then we can decide which one of us is the appropriate person to see. And then we'll tell you everything that you can expect from your first visit and get you scheduled out for some more visits, and then we'll see you in the clinic. Perfect. Super easy to reach out. Yes. And as we wrap up, is there anything you'd like to add that I haven't touched on today? You can also find us on Instagram. Our handle is at Nova Motion PT and we try to put out content related to TMJ headaches as well as women's health. And we have a lot of fun putting together some, uh, Instagram trends as well.

Speaker 15:41

Oh, perfect. We'll have to be on the lookout for him. Thank you so much, Shira, for joining me on the podcast today and sharing your knowledge, passion, and just inspiring story with us. I wish you and the entire team at Nova Motion Physical Therapy the very best, and thank

Speaker 2 15:58

you so much,

Speaker 15:59

all that comes your way in the future. Thanks, Katie. I appreciate it. Thank you.