MatthewHayward.

I'm an AHPRA-registered chiropractor practising at Continuum Health & Performance in North Strathfield. My caseload is mostly jaws — TMJ dysfunction, orofacial pain, the headaches and ear symptoms that travel with them, and the cervical spine work that goes alongside.

This page is the longer version of who I am, what I trained in, and how I think about the work. If that's useful, read on. If you'd rather just book, the consultation page is one click away.

How I ended up here

I trained as a generalist sports and exercise chiropractor. The first years of practice were the usual mix — necks, backs, shoulders, sports injuries, the broad spectrum.

What changed was who started turning up.

People who'd been fitted for a splint and were no better six months later. People with morning headaches and a tight jaw and a stack of imaging that came back unremarkable. People whose ENT had said their tinnitus was idiopathic. People who'd been told to live with it.

The pattern was specific. The joint, the muscles around the joint, the cervical spine, and the cranial nerves were being looked at by separate clinicians who were each right within their lane. The lane wasn't wide enough.

So I followed the problem. I trained where the literature pointed. I joined the academies. I reorganised my caseload around it.

I'm not the right answer for every jaw problem. I'm the right answer for the ones where the standard answer hasn't worked.

Where I trained

How I work with a new patient

The first appointment is mostly listening. Most people who walk in have a long history with their pain — three or four practitioners, a splint that didn't work, a couple of imaging reports — and they need someone to take the whole story before suggesting another thing to try.

I assess the joint, the muscles, the cervical spine, and the neurology together rather than as separate problems. I tell you what I think is driving it, what I can do about it, and — equally important — what I can't.

Some cases need a dentist. Some need an oral surgeon or a neurologist. If yours is one of those, I'll tell you on the first visit and write the referral letter that makes the next appointment coherent.

If your case is one I can help with, we start that day. The protocol I use combines high-level laser therapy, dry needling, myofascial release, and neurological rehabilitation. The mix and the sequence are specific to what the assessment finds. There's more on the protocol on the main TMJ Chiro page.

Why a separate site for TMJ work

Continuum Health & Performance is a multi-practitioner clinic that treats a broad caseload. The clinic site reflects that breadth, and it has to.

People researching a stubborn jaw problem are doing a different kind of search. They want depth, not breadth. They want to know if the clinician they're considering has spent enough time in the field to be useful for their specific problem.

This site is the long-form version of one practitioner's clinical interest. The booking system, the address, the phone number, the clinic — all the same. What's different is the focus of the page and who it's written for.

Outside clinic

I read the literature most weeks — orofacial pain journals, photobiomodulation research, cervical spine work, and the neurology that overlaps with it. CPD requirements aside, that's where most of my clinical thinking gets refined.

If we end up sitting across from each other, you'll find the conversation more curious than scripted. I want to know what you've tried, what helped a little, what made it worse, what you stopped doing because of the pain. That's where the diagnosis usually is.

The practical bit