Daying

What is ST5?

ST5 (Daying) is a point on the Stomach channel on the lower jaw, just in front of the angle of the jaw. Its Chinese name is usually translated as "Great Welcome".

In classical texts ST5 belongs to the group of facial Stomach-channel points used for problems of the jaw, teeth and cheek. Traditional writers linked it to toothache, facial swelling, a jaw that will not open freely, and one-sided facial weakness. It appears in standard point curricula, but it is used far less often than its neighbours ST6 and ST7.

Here is the honest verdict on the evidence: there is essentially no human research testing finger pressure on ST5 for anything. A long record of traditional use is not evidence that a point works, and it is not evidence that pressing it is safe for you. Those two things are said once here and not repeated in every section below.

One feature of ST5 matters more than any claim made for it. The point sits directly over the spot where the facial artery crosses the jawbone, and you can often feel it pulsing under your fingertip. That makes ST5 a point to treat with a light hand rather than a hard one.

Everything on this page is self-applied finger pressure. Nothing here involves needles, heat, cupping or anything that breaks the skin. If a video showed you a needle going into this area, that is a trained practitioner's procedure and not something to copy at home.

Used gently, ST5 is a reasonable point to include in a short self-massage routine for a tired or aching jaw. Treat it as comfort and self-care, not as treatment for a dental, nerve or circulation problem. If something in your face hurts, swells, or feels numb, the useful first step is a diagnosis, not a pressure point.

Where is ST5 and how do you find it?

ST5 sits on the lower jaw, just in front of the angle of the jaw, in the soft dip at the front edge of the chewing muscle.

• Find the angle of your jaw. Run a finger along the bottom edge of your lower jaw until it turns upward towards your ear. That corner is the angle of the mandible (jawbone).
• Clench your teeth. A firm bulge of muscle pops up above and in front of that corner. This is the masseter, the main chewing muscle.
• Move to its front edge. Slide your fingertip forward along the jawbone, roughly one thumb-width (about 2 cm) in front of the jaw angle, to where the muscle bulge ends and the flesh goes soft.
• Relax and feel the hollow. Unclench. ST5 is in that small dip on the jawbone, at the front border of the masseter.
• Check for the pulse. Many people can feel a light pulse here, the facial artery crossing the jaw. A faint pulse confirms you are close to the classical location.

What all sources agree on is this: ST5 is on the lower jaw, at the anterior (front) border of the masseter, where the facial artery can be felt. Descriptions vary slightly on exactly how far forward of the jaw angle that falls, so work from the muscle edge rather than from a measured distance.

Do not confuse ST5 with its neighbours. ST6 (Jiache) sits on the belly of the chewing muscle, at the top of the bulge when you clench. ST7 (Xiaguan) sits higher, in the hollow below the cheekbone in front of the ear. ST5 is the lowest of the three, down on the jawbone itself.

Locate it with the flat pad of one finger, not a fingernail. The skin over the jaw is thin and bruises easily.

How do you apply pressure to ST5?

1. Sit down first. Work seated or lying, not standing. Pressure near the jaw and neck can make some people feel briefly light-headed.
2. Use one fingertip pad. Place the flat pad of your index or middle finger on the hollow at the front edge of the chewing muscle, on the jawbone.
3. Feel for a pulse before you press. If you feel a clear throb under the pad, shift a few millimetres forward or back so you are beside it rather than squashing it.
4. Press gently. Aim for light to moderate pressure only, about a 3 out of 10. The face is not the shoulder; it needs far less force than you think.
5. Hold or circle. Hold a steady press for 20 to 30 seconds, or make slow small circles for the same time. Breathe normally throughout.
6. Do both sides. Treat one side, then the other. Do not press both sides hard at the same moment.
7. Repeat sparingly. Two or three rounds per side, once or twice a day, is plenty. More is not better here.
8. Finish with a jaw stretch. Open and close your mouth slowly a few times, and let the jaw hang loose for a moment.

Stop at once if you feel dizzy, faint, sick, or if your vision changes. Stop if the pressure causes sharp pain, pins and needles, or a spreading ache in the teeth. Soreness that lasts after you lift your finger means you pressed too hard.

Do not use knuckles, massage tools, gadgets or anything hard on this point. Keep sessions short. If three or four short sessions over a couple of days change nothing, the problem is not one that finger pressure is going to shift, and it is time to ask a dentist or doctor instead.

What is ST5 traditionally used for?

• Toothache in the lower jaw. Classical texts list ST5 for pain in the lower teeth and gums. There is no human trial of ST5 pressure for dental pain. Toothache almost always has a physical cause, such as decay, an exposed root or infection, and pressing a point will not treat that cause.
• Trismus, meaning a jaw that will not open fully. This is one of the oldest listed uses. Evidence is limited to tradition plus general acupuncture studies on jaw disorders that used several points at once, so nothing can be attributed to ST5 alone.
• Jaw tension and clenching. Modern self-care writing suggests ST5 for the ache of grinding or clenching. The point does sit over the chewing muscle's front edge, so gentle massage there plausibly eases muscle soreness the way rubbing any tight muscle does. That is ordinary massage, not a point-specific effect, and no trial has tested it.
• Facial swelling of the cheek. Tradition lists swelling of the face and cheek. This is one to be careful with. Swelling can mean a dental abscess, a blocked salivary gland or an infected lymph node, all of which need a clinician. Pressing on an infected area can make it worse.
• One-sided facial weakness. ST5 appears in classical lists for facial paralysis, and facial point combinations are still used in acupuncture research on Bell's palsy. Those studies are small, usually unblinded, and use needles plus several points, so they say nothing reliable about self-applied pressure on ST5.
• General relaxation. A slow, light face massage feels calming for many people. That benefit is real enough as comfort, and it does not depend on hitting an exact spot.

In plain terms: ST5 has a long traditional record and almost no specific human evidence. Use it as gentle self-care for a tired jaw, and look elsewhere for anything that is actually painful, swollen or getting worse.

Are there tips for using ST5 effectively?

• Find it with the muscle, not a ruler. Clench, feel the bulge, then slide to its front edge on the jawbone. Muscle landmarks are more reliable on your own face than measured distances.
• Press beside the pulse, not on it. If you feel a throb, move a few millimetres. You want the muscle edge and the bone, not the artery.
• Warm the jaw first. A warm flannel on the cheek for a minute makes the chewing muscle easier to work with and means you need less pressure.
• Keep your teeth apart. Let the jaw hang slightly open while you press. Working on a clenched muscle is uncomfortable and less useful.
• Short and often beats long and hard. Two 30-second holds twice a day is a better pattern than one grinding five-minute session.
• Trim your nails. Facial skin breaks easily. Use the flat pad of the finger and keep nails short.
• Pair it with the rest of the jaw. Light massage along the whole chewing muscle, from ST5 up towards ST6 and ST7, usually feels better than isolating one dot.
• Keep a simple note. Write down the day, what you did and how the jaw felt afterwards. Jaw ache comes and goes on its own, so without notes you will credit the point for ordinary good days.
• Deal with the cause too. If you clench at night, grind your teeth, or chew gum all day, a pressure point will not outrun the habit. A dentist can check for grinding and discuss a night guard.
• Skip it when the face is sore to touch. Tenderness that is new, one-sided and worsening is a reason to see someone, not a reason to press harder.

Set expectations low and honest. The realistic best case is a jaw that feels a bit looser for a while, the same way any gentle muscle massage helps.

What do people get wrong with ST5?

• Expecting a cure. This is the big one. No acupressure point cures toothache, tooth decay, an abscess or facial nerve damage. Expecting that delays real care, and with dental infection delay can be genuinely dangerous.
• Pressing straight onto the artery. People feel the pulse and assume it marks the spot to squash. It marks the spot to work beside. Hard pressure on an artery is uncomfortable and unnecessary.
• Using far too much force. Jaw and face tissues are thin. Heavy thumb pressure here leaves bruises and tender spots, especially in older adults and anyone on blood-thinning medication.
• Confusing ST5 with ST6. ST6 is on the bulge of the chewing muscle when you clench. ST5 is lower and further forward, on the jawbone at the muscle's front edge. Many videos show one and name the other.
• Drifting down onto the neck. Slipping below the jawline puts fingers over the neck's blood vessels. Stay on the jawbone itself.
• Working a swollen cheek. Swelling can mean infection. Massaging an infected area can spread it and makes it hurt more. Swelling with fever or a bad tooth needs a dentist or doctor the same day.
• Using tools. Massage guns, hard rollers and plastic pressure sticks do not belong on the face. Fingers only.
• Treating one side only, forever. If only one side ever feels tight or painful, that asymmetry is information. Mention it to a dentist rather than massaging it indefinitely.
• Pressing both sides hard at once. It adds nothing and increases the chance of feeling faint. Work one side, then the other.
• Keeping at it when nothing changes. A few days of no effect means the point is not the answer. Ongoing jaw pain, clicking or locking deserves a proper assessment.

What does the research on ST5 actually say?

There is no useful human research on ST5 specifically. We could not identify any controlled trial of finger pressure on ST5 for toothache, jaw tension, facial swelling or facial weakness. That is the honest state of the evidence, and it is normal: most individual acupuncture points have never been tested on their own.

What does exist sits one step removed. There is a body of small acupuncture research on temporomandibular disorders (jaw joint and chewing muscle pain) and on Bell's palsy (sudden one-sided facial weakness). Those studies use needles, not finger pressure, and they almost always use a group of face and body points together. ST5 may be among them in some protocols. When several points are used at once, no conclusion can be drawn about any single one of them.

The quality of that wider literature is also mixed. Trials tend to be small, short, and hard to blind, since a participant usually knows whether they were touched or needled. Jaw pain and Bell's palsy both often improve on their own, which makes uncontrolled studies look more impressive than they are. Reviews of acupuncture for jaw disorders have generally concluded that any benefit is modest and the evidence is low certainty.

It is worth saying what a stronger case looks like, for comparison. PC6 and nausea is the clearest example in the whole acupressure literature: repeated controlled trials, including in pregnancy and after surgery, show a real if modest effect. ST5 has nothing remotely like that behind it.

So the practical reading is this. Gentle self-massage over ST5 is a low-cost comfort measure for a tired jaw, and local muscle massage is a plausible reason it might feel good. There is no evidence it treats a dental problem, a nerve problem or an infection. Do not let a pressure point stand in for a dental examination or a medical opinion when something in your face is wrong.