Nigel Smith

Nigel had ambitions to become a physiotherapist from a young age and dreamed of working for his beloved Canterbury Bulldogs after enduring his share of sports related injuries as a kid. He was accepted into Physiotherapy at the University of Queensland and graduated in 2000 and chose to progress down the Sports pathway working casually for the Queensland Reds, where he realised Sports physiotherapy wasn’t his thing, which was lucky, because it turned out he was actually rubbish at it!

Soon after, Nigel had a chance meeting with an Oral surgeon who was removing his wife's wisdom teeth. The surgeon started talking about the fact that he didn’t have great surgical options for treatment and was looking for conservative alternatives for his patients. As it happened, Nigel had personally had bad experiences with the management of his own TMJ as a teenager and had spent time (with good results) rehabilitating himself with basic physiotherapy principals, so they formed an TMJ treatment pathway. It turned out Nigel was actually quite good at fixing jaws, both his and his patients and more and more Dentists and surgeons started referring. So, because of a chance meeting, the niche field of Physiotherapy for Headaches, Neck and Jaw Pain chose Nigel.

Nigel has spent the last 20 year of his life refining his jaw treatment techniques, attending and lecturing at numerous seminars on jaws and headaches, teaching and mentoring his team of physios, and generally talking to anyone about the jaw who will listen.

• Bachelor of Physiotherapy
• Watson Headache® Institute Level 1 Foundation, Level 2 Consolidation and Level 3 Certification Course
• Trained in TMD and Cervicogenic sources of craniofacial pain with Mariano Rocabado
• Motor Reflex Testing with the TMJ & Sleep Therapy Centre
• Recognising and assessing oral soft tissue pathology - UQ School of Dentistry
• Masterclass in Advanced Dry Needling for headache, shoulder, and upper quadrant
• Completed coursework with Barb Hungerford on treatment of the cervical spine and thoracic cage
• Annually lecture on the jaw to the UQ Dentistry Students
• Annually lecture on the jaw to the UQ Physiotherapy Students

Nigel Smith practices at the:
Nundah Clinic: Monday
Greenslopes Clinic: Thursday
Southport: Tuesday all day and Friday mornings

Cricket, Point hacks, Australian music, and, of course, jaws!