The Jaw and Pelvic Floor: What’s the Link?
At first, your jaw and pelvic floor might seem like two unrelated parts of the body. But they’re more connected than you might think — and this link shows up often in both clinical treatment and bodywork.
Both the jaw (TMJ) and pelvic floor play big roles in how we hold tension, breathe, move, and regulate stress. When there’s dysfunction in one, it often impacts the other — even if subtly.
Fascia: The Body’s Internal Web
Fascia is the connective tissue that wraps around all your muscles, bones, and organs. It’s continuous — meaning what happens in one part of the body can ripple through to another.
A fascial line called the deep front line runs from your jaw, through the tongue and diaphragm, down to the pelvic floor. So if your jaw is tight or you clench often, that tension can travel through this line — influencing how you breathe, hold your posture, or activate your core.
Breathing + Core Pressure
Your jaw, diaphragm, abdominal muscles, and pelvic floor all work together to manage intra-abdominal pressure — which helps you stabilise your core and breathe well.
When you clench your jaw or hold tension in your neck, it can restrict your diaphragm. This affects how your pelvic floor moves. Over time, this can lead to either too much tension (a hypertonic pelvic floor) or weakness and fatigue.
People with chronic jaw clenching (bruxism) often experience pelvic floor symptoms — sometimes without even realising the link.
The Nervous System’s Role
Both your jaw and pelvic floor are deeply tied to your nervous system. When you’re stressed, your body shifts into a “fight or flight” state. The jaw often clenches, the breath shortens, and the pelvic floor may tighten.
This is one reason why stress or trauma can show up in the body as physical tension — especially in the jaw, neck, hips, or pelvic floor. Calming the nervous system through breathwork, bodywork, or restorative movement often helps ease both areas.
Posture and Alignment
Poor posture — especially forward head posture — often goes hand-in-hand with TMJ dysfunction. When the head is forward, it shifts the entire spine and pelvis. That change in alignment affects how your core muscles work and how the pelvic floor holds tension.
It’s not always obvious, but these small postural shifts matter over time.
Common Signs of Jaw–Pelvis Connection
You might notice this link if you:
Clench your jaw and also have hip or pelvic pain
Experience TMJ dysfunction and lower back issues
Have pelvic floor tension or incontinence that hasn’t improved with localised treatment
Feel tight through the neck, ribs, or diaphragm
Tend to hold stress in the body or have a history of trauma
A Whole-Body Approach to Treatment
If you’re working with jaw tension, TMJ dysfunction, or pelvic floor symptoms — looking at the whole body matters.
Therapies like craniosacral work, TMJ massage, pelvic physiotherapy, and somatic bodywork often overlap — because the systems they support are all connected.
In clinical practice, it’s common to see improvements in jaw function after working with the pelvis — and vice versa.
References:
Olivo SA et al. (2013). The association between head and cervical posture and temporomandibular disorders: a systematic review. Cranio, 31(1), 40–49.
Myers TW. (2020). Anatomy Trains (4th ed.).
Bordoni B, Morabito B. (2013). The diaphragm muscle and lumbar spine control: A pilot study. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 6, 281–291.
Chaitow L. (2012). Clinical Application of Neuromuscular Techniques: Volume 2 – The Lower Body.