ST-07 (Xia Guan) Below the Joint

What does ST-07 Xia Guan do?

ST-07 sits just below the cheekbone in front of the ear, and it is a meeting point of the Stomach and Gall Bladder channels. Its recorded actions are entirely local — it is the jaw, ear and tooth point of this region.

• Benefits the ears, jaw and teeth — three structures that all sit within a couple of centimetres of the point
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain — the local action for facial pain and paralysis

Why one point covers ear, jaw and teeth. The temporomandibular joint, the external ear canal and the branches of the trigeminal nerve serving the upper and lower teeth are all packed into this small area. A point here reaches all three by position, not by channel theory — which is why its indication list crosses what would otherwise be three different territories.

The Gall Bladder meeting matters for the ear. The Gall Bladder channel curves around the ear, and the Stomach channel passes in front of it. A point where both cross gets the ear indications that a Stomach point alone would not carry — the same structural reason our SI-19 record gives for that point’s three-channel meeting.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category and action records; SI-19's classification queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is ST-07 Xia Guan used for?

ST-07 is used for ear conditions, toothache, facial paralysis and facial pain, and for restricted jaw movement. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Deafness
• Tinnitus
• Ear discharge (otorrhoea)
• Toothache
• Facial paralysis
• Pain of the face
• Restricted movement of the jaw

An honest note on two of these. Sudden hearing loss and ear discharge require medical assessment — sudden sensorineural hearing loss is treated as urgent in conventional medicine, where time to treatment matters. Facial paralysis likewise needs diagnosis, since its causes range from the self-limiting to the serious. This record describes classical use and is not a suggestion that assessment be delayed. The same framing is applied on SI-19 and SJ-17 in this library.

How it is combined. With ST-06 Jia Che on the masseter — the two are the standard Stomach-channel jaw pair, and our ST-06 record documents the classical through-needling between them. With SI-19 Ting Gong, SJ-21 Er Men and GB-02 Ting Hui at the ear’s opening, all held here. With SJ-17 Yi Feng behind the earlobe. With Qian Zheng, the extra point for facial deviation.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; ST-06, SI-19, SJ-17, SJ-21, GB-02 and Qian Zheng queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is ST-07 Xia Guan located, and how does it differ from SI-19?

ST-07 is at the lower border of the cheekbone arch, in the depression in front of the jaw’s condyle. The name says exactly where it is — Below the Joint.

• Lower border of the zygomatic arch, anterior to the mandibular condyle
• SI-19 Ting Gong lies behind it, between the tragus and the same condyle
• ST-06 Jia Che lies below it on the masseter, at the jaw angle

The mouth-open distinction is worth getting right, and the two points are opposite cases. Our SI-19 record specifies that the point is located and needled with the mouth open, because the condyle otherwise fills the space and no depression exists. ST-07 is conventionally located with the mouth CLOSED — opening the jaw moves the condyle forward into the hollow that defines it. Two points a centimetre apart, each requiring the opposite jaw position. That is the sort of detail a reference should state, because getting it backwards means finding neither point.

On the name. “Xia Guan” means Below the Joint. There is a corresponding Shang Guan (Above the Joint) — GB-03 — directly above it on the upper border of the same arch. The pair are named as a pair.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; SI-19's open-mouth requirement and ST-06's position queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 134): At the lower border of the zygomatic arch, in the depression anterior to the condyloid process of the mandible.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 147): On the face, anterior to the ear, in the depression between the zygomatic arch and the mandibular notch. This point is located with the mouth closed.

How is ST-07 Xia Guan needled?

The standard texts record perpendicular insertion to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents, not instruction for a reader.

• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.3–0.5 inch — shallow.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable. (Our record for the neighbouring SI-19 does not list moxibustion; the two differ on this and the difference is recorded rather than smoothed over.)
• Regional anatomy: the maxillary artery and its branches run deep to this point, and the mandibular division of the trigeminal nerve emerges nearby through the foramen ovale region; the parotid gland lies behind and below, and the facial nerve’s branches emerge from it. The zygomatic arch forms the roof of the space.

Hazard, stated proportionately. The considerations here are vascular and neural rather than cavity-related — this is a well-vascularised part of the face and the deep structures are close. Bleeding and bruising are the ordinary risks of needling this region. Our record for SJ-17 Yi Feng, behind the earlobe, documents the facial nerve as it exits the stylomastoid foramen and states plainly that no measured safe-depth study exists for that point; our SI-18 record cites a cadaveric study giving 46.6 mm from that point to the sphenopalatine ganglion and labels it explicitly as a deep-path measurement, not a safe depth. No study measuring a safe depth at ST-07 could be located, and neither of those figures is borrowed here. No case report naming ST-07 as the site of an injury was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; SI-19's moxibustion status and the SJ-17 and SI-18 measurements queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on ST-07, and what should a reader know?

ST-07 appears frequently in trials for facial paralysis and temporomandibular disorders — but as one point in a protocol, alongside ST-06, SJ-17, LI-04 and others. No trial isolates it. As throughout this library, a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Facial paralysis is where this caveat bites hardest. It has one of the larger acupuncture trial literatures, and ST-07 is in most of those protocols. Our own record for ST-06 Jia Che notes the same thing from the other side, citing a data-mining analysis of 1,695 studies in which ST-04 and GB-14 emerged as a top point pair at every stage — prescribing-frequency evidence, which tells you what practitioners choose rather than what any single point does.

What this page can state with confidence. The classification — a meeting point of the Stomach and Gall Bladder channels — and the anatomy, which explains why one point covers ear, jaw and teeth. Both are checkable. The mouth-closed locating convention, and its contrast with SI-19’s mouth-open requirement, is the practical detail most likely to be useful and least likely to be found stated plainly elsewhere.

A note on searching for it. “ST 7” and “Xiaguan” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material matched on the code or on a place name — Xiaguan is a district name in China. This library has repeatedly discarded such matches. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification, location and indication records; ST-06's data-mining finding queried from our own data).