Ashley Tisdale Reveals How She Stopped Her 'Horrible TMJ' Disorder After Years of 'Clenching' and Headaches: 'My Whole Face Felt Tired'

Ashley Tisdale is opening up about her long, painful battle with TMJ — and how she finally found real relief.

During an exclusive interview with OK!, the famed actress reflects on her "horrible" experience suffering from temporomandibular (TMJ) disorder, a condition that causes pain in the jaw joint and in muscles controlling jaw movement.

Thanks to Emface's newly FDA-cleared TMJ treatment, Tisdale's face feels brand new.

Providing a timeline of her journey conquering TMJ disorder, the High School Musical alum tells OK! her symptoms began "a few years ago, right in the middle of a really busy time at work."

At first, she chalked the discomfort up to stress, but her issues continued to worsen.

"Eventually my jaw stayed tight even when I was 'relaxed,'" Tisdale explains. "I would wake up already clenching, with my jaw locked, and it would follow me into the day — through Zoom calls, workouts, even when I was trying to go to sleep. It sounds small, but tension in your face changes everything."

The clenching, however, only became more and more overwhelming.

"I'd feel like my jaw was stuck in a tiny, angry fist," she shares, noting the constant strain led to near-daily headaches. "There were mornings I'd wake up and my whole face felt tired before I even got out of bed. It’s such a weird thing to feel exhausted from your jaw."

Like many chronic TMJ sufferers, the Frenshe founder tried just about everything — night guards, massages, acupuncture and even injectables.

"Everything helped a little, but nothing released that heavy, clamped-down feeling in any lasting way," she says.

When she learned about Emface’s TMJ treatment — now FDA-cleared — she was eager to try it.

"The science intrigued me. Plus, I don’t love over-complicated fixes or anything that feels invasive," she admits. "Emface felt like something that could actually work with my body instead of just numbing it or patching the problem."

What appealed to her most was how natural the process felt.

"Emface is literally training your muscles to relax," Tisdale details. "No needles, no surgery, no downtime… it’s just using technology to communicate with your facial muscles so they stop overworking. That’s the definition of effortless. It's about letting your body learn how to calm down."

During her session at Dr. Jason Diamond's Los Angeles office, the former Disney star says the treatment was surprisingly soothing.

"It feels like a combination of a warm massage and these tiny, concentrated pulses that target your muscles," Tisdale recalls. "It's not painful at all. You sit there while your muscles do the work for you, and you can literally feel the tension start to release. I meditated during my treatment."

And the results were immediate, as she noticed relief "right after the treatment ended." The shift was so dramatic she caught herself testing her jaw movement over and over.

"I really hadn't realized how much tension I had been holding," Tisdale adds. "It felt like someone had taken weight off my face. I didn’t realize how heavy it had gotten until it wasn’t heavy anymore. I kept opening and closing my jaw just because it felt so weirdly free."

Since starting the treatments, her clenching has eased significantly.

"It’s like my jaw finally got the memo that it doesn’t need to be working 24/7," she quips, mentioning a "huge" improvement in her headaches.

The benefits didn't stop there, as her sleep as "100 percent" gotten better since the fix.

"When I’m not grinding my teeth, I actually rest. And I’ve noticed I don’t tense my shoulders as much during the day because my whole upper body isn’t bracing for tension in my face," Tisdale points out.

For The Suite Life of Zack & Cody star, the experience clarified just how widespread jaw tension has become.

"I think we're all stressed out! We’re in constant 'fight or scroll' mode," she declares. "Our bodies don’t know how to shut off. We don’t just hold stress in our minds, we hold it in our bodies and our faces."

Emface TMJ has now become a key part of her wellness toolkit, as Tisdale states: "It’s one of those things that helps me reset. What I really like is that it’s helping dissolve the tension and giving me a better baseline level of tension, not just masking the symptoms of TMJ."

Tisdale says she's committed to continuing a full series of treatments with Dr. Diamond, spacing sessions a few weeks apart. After that, she’ll fine-tune her maintenance schedule.

"I think it is really important to work with your provider so you can find your personalized treatment plan. For me, I think Emface TMJ will be like a tune-up for my TMJ—just keeping everything relaxed and free from pain," she concludes.