Ouch! Sudden Jaw Pain really hurts!

[PavlovtheCat]

I was eating a sandwich, bit down, not that hard, felt a crack/pop and my jaw felt out of line, and I could not open, or close my jaw. The pain was excruciating for about 5 mins, into my ear, through my face up to my eye, into my neckthen I could slowly open it a tiny bit, but couldn't bite down/close my jaw. It subsided enough for me to get on with eating my sandwich gently after about 10 mins, leaving a dull ache, sore to touch.

Then it happened again this evening, and now I can clench my mouth together, have a horrible headache, my eye is twitching a little, ear hurts, mouth hurts inside toward the back of my throat, the whole of that area really hurts, and it hurts to touch in the local area of where it cracked.

What the fuck is that all about?

I do find that I clench my jaw on occasion without realising it, due to being in pain for other unconnected reasons, when I am in pain, or concentrating, I find myself clenching my jaw, mostly when my pain is high. Is this the likely cause?

Oh meant to say it's the left side only, not both sides.

Google Tempromandibular joint disorder.

i just took a look at that. Luckily it seems it is managed by pretty much the painkillers I am taking for back pain already it's not touching either back or jaw pain, so maybe sleep is the best thing

I wonder if it had anything to do with taking diazepam this morning? I took 2mg to deal with muscle spasms in lumbar spine, and wonder if it loosened the muscles too quickly or something, seeing as I clench my jaw without knowing it, maybe it unloosened the clenching? I now know I clench my jaw more than I realised, as every time I do it now it fucking hurts! And it is happening a lot!

goodness i hope its something that can be a one off and not something I will have to add to my list of ailments

I know what you mean, Pavlov. My sudden jaw pain turned out to be trigeminal neuralgia and now I'm permanently on anti-epileptic drugs to keep the pain at bay. I've entered a world of MRIs and lumbar punctures. And the only real 'cure' is brain surgery.

But as a result of researching what it could be before I got a proper diagnosis, I had heard of TMJ disorder.

Perhaps a visit to the GP is in order. I think physio is a possibility for TMJ.

I know someone who has TN. She is in agony with it. She has botox injections which she says help, but sometimes hurt for a short while afterwards, but largely it causes her a huge amount of pain.

Can I ask what meds you take - gabapentin? I am asking because that is a med I took for nerve pain due to prolapsed disc, and stopped due to it fucking me up in a zombie like manner. I hope to god this is not something that becomes a long term problem. I should not stress, it's possibly a one off. But, it really fucking hurts!

2kids I meant to say how shit a diagnosis for you, must be horrible to have that kind of pain daily. Hope you find some respite sometimes.

I had the same thing a few days ago. Try pressing really hard (in and up) just under your cheekbone on the side that hurts, and then sit for a while with your mouth hanging open and relaxed. If it feels better, keep doing it! Definitely helped me.

I am on gabapentin. And I'm happy to report that not only can I tolerate taking it with only the smallest of side effects (a bit of a twitch that doesn't affect me much) but it also brings me excellent pain relief.

I used to be on carbamazepine which did indeed fuck me up like a zombie. I couldn't walk straight. And when a dose kicked in when I was driving my children home in the middle of the day it was all I could do not to fall asleep. I couldn't remember events or words and coundn't touch type and had no coordination. I can see why you would have stopped. I was happy to get off it and on to the gabapentin - but less than happy about the 2 day wait that the GP made me do before starting the new stuff as it was one day of ok followed by a second day of absolute screaming agony for 16 hours straight.

I'm now a bit 'meh' about the diagnosis - partly because of how well managed it is. I only have aching when I am due to take a dose or if I am late taking one - or if the weather is cold.

I'm slightly more stressed about other things shown on my MRI which may or may not be a hundred different things - hence the lumbar puncture which I will have when Walton arrange for me to go in. They don't seem to be in much of a hurry though. Bloody NHS.

The NHS is soooo slow. I waited forever to get my prolapsed disc diagnoses and even longer to get a further spinal condition diagnosis, which was the cause of it all! And now back on treadmill of treacle. There is no rush that's for sure.

Good luck with your investigations. Hope you get a good outcome, one that you can manage well.

ceramic nope, that just made it worse

Urgh Pavlov. It's more crap waiting when in pain. My TN is managed, so it's not bothering me waiting for my further investigations.

However, I also have a hip condition that has taken 3 years and lots of unnecessary physio before one consultant (who I waited a further 6 months to see after finally being referred to see) told me the problem straight away.

He's now referred me for a steroid injection to see how that helps before considering keyhole surgery. It's been a really annoying 3 month wait since seeing him already as it's no better and is getting in the way with daily life.

Prolapsed disks must have been agony!

2kids was, still is, nerve pain not fully gone away, got unstable vertebrae which probably caused the prolapse so risk of it happening again, and in lots of pain most days. It takes a lot outside of my back pain to floor me painwise which is why I know this jaw pain is high end pain, as my back pain meds have not touched it!

you might get it dealt with faster by going to your dentist

oh no, this sounds awful- the trigeminal thinng and TJD sprang to mind but also the possibilty it is muascular sprain/pull- I almost pulled a muscle yawning once and the pain spred in all the places you mentioned, but i understand this is not a very scientific shar. hope you are feeling a bit better than earlier. did you try to pushing in thing mentioned above?
big unmnetty hugs and fx it dissappears by the am (((((((((()))))))))))

maizie I tried the pushing in thingy and it hurt more! it hurts a lot, but less than it did. Possibly due to some diazepam only 2mg I might have to have ready break for brekky and soup for lunch...

Thank you for my unMNy hugs Hope tomorrow is not too stressful for you and I am off to bed in a mo so hopefully this will go away by then.

teacup that's interesting to know. But, it's definitely not tooth pain as my tooth area is fine. But I need a check up so maybe I will book one now.

dentists treat TMJ more than doctors they do not just do teeth as the jaw is about the occlusion (the way you bite together) and if you are in the habit of clenching there are things a dentist can suggest to help, I'm a dentist I check the TMJ joint and bite at every single check up for clicking joints, different closure paths, tenderness in muscles of mastication (chewing) and the soft tissues as well, well over 60% of oral cancers are diagnosed by dentists not doctors. cancer screening is an important part of a dental check up not just to see whether you have holes or gum disease

teacup I didn't think of the bite being wrong, I have s crossbite? Top Teeth on right side on the wrong side (inside). Could that be linked? I was once told it could cause problems as an adult but I mentioned it to dentist at last checkup as teeth are crooked he said it was only cosmetic and no need to correct and would cost thousands fir a brace. I was bad using brace as a child as it covered my back teeth and made me speak funny. C

When I first turned up at the dentists with my pain, before anyone knew it was TN,I had the most thorough examination by my dentist as she was trying to find the cause of the pain.

They could be a good first place to go to with a jaw problem. Phone them and ask perhaps.

I will make an appt tomorrow with the dentist then. It has not fully cracked since yesterday, but really hurts, I can bite down more than I could yesterday, but it's very tender, and I have face pain including the skin feeling sore to touch all around the area, have an ear ache, headache, as well as the actual pain at the, what I think its the joint of the jaw and my cheekbone and eye is sort of throbbing I guess as there is a little bit of inflammation. I have taken naproxen as I normally do, plus cocodemol 30/1000mg and it still hurts.

I need to make a doctors appt for other things so i will mention to both the dentist and the doctor, see what they come up with.

Good luck Pavlov. x

Pavlov - I do hope you get something sorted soon. I somehow think pain in the face/head is harder to bear than somewhere else on the body but I might be wrong.

2kids so glad you have your TN under control though seems the other things are more worrying, and hope they get sorted soon.

teacup - I've just had an attack of shingles in a nerve in my L cheek just under the eye. The attack itself was very mild as I had no pain before or when the rash came out. However now that the swelling has gone and the rash is disappearing I suspect I have post herpetic neuralgia. I went to my dentist this morning because I've got a back molar that she said could cause trouble, but she said the tooth was ok and thought maybe I had a "bit of neuralgia" ..........she told me not to worry because "there's neuralgia and neuralgia" which I took to mean it could be mild or severe. I just have a niggling pain on the left side of my face. I am in a high risk category for PHN because of my age (70) and the affected nerve was in my face.

It's just I knew someone with TN and she suffered really badly and no treatment seemed to work and she had to give up her job, but am trying not to stress.........have a bit of a history of health anxiety.

Any advice anyone?

trigeminal neuralgia the severe kind is awful so bad in some cases they actually cut the nerve but that is very very rare, nananina I think you possibly do have post herpetic neuralgia, most likely to get an attack when run down or bad cold seems to trigger it a bit like cold sores

teacup i sometimes get nerve pain if I have a migraine, mildly so on my face, but fuzzy, suspect this is not TN related as the pain is very definitely emanating from the joint, and is bruised pain rather than nerve pain. I have a little nerve pain but think thats purely due to the way the pain has moved outwards/transferred due to close proximity of facial nerve to location of pain. I have both nerve and other pain due to my back problem and this definitely feels like other pain.

I have googled complications of a crossbite and TMJ appears to be a common complication. I am not sure if there is much that can be done about it now, having looked at photos on google, I now realise that mine is actually quite pronounced (it appears that the jaw is shifted to one side due to the location of several teeth, although it is not i don't think). I have never been hugely bothered about the appearance of my teeth, yes occasionally I wish they were straighter/I persevered with a brace, but cosmetically not hugely bothered, I have no fillings, the teeth themselves are in excellent shape, rarely even need a full scrape of plaque when I have them cleaned. But, I did wonder if the crossbite would come back to bite me on the backside.

I have a recollection of having this last year, but not to this severity, a locked jaw, it passed, no further pain. I still have pain now, and as I chew it increases, but I guess that I have pulled the muscle or something, it's easier than before.

Fingers crossed it's nothing major, I can do without the pain!

nina i hope your own pain issues resolve themselves, I have heard that nerve pain following shingles is very unpleasant, so if you have that, hope you get some relief. I personally think that nerve pain is the worst kind of pain, not sure about location personally, as my own experiences of nerve pain have extended to my legs and affected my mobility and compared to this, this hurts, but I can medicate this to some extent, my leg pain is hard to medicate without turning me into a zombie.

Don't stress, Nina (hard if you are in pain, I know). If you aren't getting any relief from your pain with paracetamol etc then it's worth a trip to the GP. They could prescribe something to help that works better on nerve pain.

I remember vividly nights when I alternated paracetamol and ibuprofen every 4 hours and still got no relief from the TN pain. As soon as I started on the right medication, my pain decreased. When I got to a good dose it's almost completely gone away. Just a bit there to remind me that I'm still a TN sufferer and to remember my tablets, or else!

Nerve pain is the worst type of pain (IMO). I remember being asked to rate my pain one night when I'd called NHS direct (bunch of chocolate teapots in this instance) and I assured them it was a 10.... "I've had 2 children and this is still a 10".

Before I was prescribed something that worked on the pain, I was ready to beg them for the brain surgery that would 'fix' me - where they would find the site that the artery is rubbing on my nerve at the base of my brain and stick a pad of teflon between them to prevent more damage and let the nerve heal - but now I am managed, they can stay away!!

I personally feel that facial pain is one of the hardest pains to ignore, but my sister has nerve pain due to post chemo complications and she finds it hard to deal with. Hope you get your back and your face sorted soon.