Has anyone ever sprained their jaw?

I once fell on my face and my jaw seemed "out of sync" somehow for a while. In the end, it seemed to settle. I noticed it when I chewed food and some times it seemed to stick while talking.

I can't say it was painful so I guess I hadn't exactly sprained it.

Give it a week or two. Hope things go well.

I have had a condition named TMJ: Temporomandibular Joint. This where the joint connecting top and bottom jaws becomes unstable.

Obviously I am not a doctor but the pain you are experiencing could be due to this.

Actually, you have made me wonder if an extremely difficult extraction (it took 1.5 hours!) caused my problem!

I manage the condition by pushing my jaw at the hinge point (you'll know where that is as you can feel it) then exercising the jaw slowly up and down. It cleared itself up but can be inclined to pop about from time to time.

There is a link here (she writes hopefully...)

www.nhs.uk/conditions/temporomandibular-disorder-tmd/

If the link doesn't work, just search in Google for 'TMJ'.

Hope you feel better soon.

I've had this and it affects my speech.

In my 20 s following what turned out to be a very long dental appointment when my mouth was forced wide for more than an hour, my jaw started to lock sometimes, its the tmj problem mentioned by candelle. 50 years later and i have to be very careful. If it happens when I have food in my mouth i have to 'post' it through gritted teeth. Cant eat an apple without cutting it up.
The dentist was later struck off, so I wasnt her only victim

Yes, I too know the feeling you are describing.

It should go away of its own accord, but why wait?

When your dentist phones back, do mention that you clench your jaw while asleep, if you haven't already done so. You might need a night brace to prevent this.

Does the jaw hurt when you open your mouth as if yawning widely?

If not you could try exercising your jaw by placing the tip of your tongue along the back of your lower teeth, then opening and closing your mouth slowly.

Make quite sure not to move your jaw sideways while doing this. Concentrate on moving your chin down and up in a straight vertical line.

You may well hear a creaking sound while doing this exercise, but as long as nothing hurts, just try to ignore the noise. It sounds very loud, as it is so near you ears!

Thanks for all your replies. It hurts to yawn and I get the cracking noise. In fact the first time I heard the cracking noise was when he was taking my tooth out. It was so loud I thought my jaw had dislocated and screamed..not that I'm one to over react

He thought that I was hearing the tooth giving way but I think it was probably my jaw. The tooth was the big molar at the back and the dentist had had to give me 4 lots of injections so I couldn't feel anything in the side of my face. Hence I didn't realise there was anything wrong with my jaw at the time. Then it was so painful and took so long to heal afterwards that it masked the jaw pain.

It’s horrible I know. My gp diagnosed diazepam which helps to relax the jaw and I take one or two when I go to the dentist. It’s been a while since I had a problem but a couple of weeks ago it locked again at the dentist. Took another two diazepam and it was 24 hours before the Jaw returned to normal. Am very cautious now, suggest you take care too vampire.

Not diagnosed... prescribed!

Hopefully giving it a bit more time will sort it.

I had a bad knock on my jaw nearly 30 years ago. Very swollen and painful for a few weeks. Since then, I find it very difficult at the dentist to keep my mouth open for more than a few minutes at the time. Have to make dentist stop, and I have to sort of double dislocate my jaw. However, this is the only time it causes me any problems.

Years ago I started chewing a lot of gum to stop smoking and one day my jaw just clicked and sort of locked. My dentist said I shouldn’t have chewed so much gum and it was bad for you. I paid to see a specialist who just told me to rub voltarol round my jawline. I remember having to eat soft food for quite a while and finding it quite frightening but it eventually got better. I did an exercise where (I think) I touched the roof of my mouth with my tongue. I think ever since I’ve tended to eat with my mouth tightly closed to avoid any sideways movement.

It's beginning to improve so fingers crossed.

I had this after root canal treatment and the dentist prescribed physiotherapy. It helped, but it might take up to a year to go back to normal completely.

Also it can cause tinnitus, so please bear that in mind. It might start further down the line, especially if you clench your jaw or grind your teeth in your sleep.

Exactly that happened to me VQ, it was so traumatic. It took ages for the extraction site to close, it still has a way to go yet after 12 months, the jaw ache and clicking took about 6/8 weeks. I dread another extraction.

vampirequeen

Hopefully giving it a bit more time will sort it.

I hope you're better now, vampirequeen

I hesitated to post before, but you must be improving now, at least I hope so.

My friend's jaw was broken when she had her wisdom teeth taken out, she had to have her jaw wired but made a good recovery.

I once put my jaw out laughing at Ken Dodd in a show he did in Bournemouth when I was on holiday there with my parents in 1961.

It sort of clicked out on the right hand side in front of my ear and hurt for ages afterwards but gradually eased back to normal in a few weeks.

I always found Ken hilarious and saw him several times in live shows.

My jaw has more or less healed no, thanks. It's still tender sometimes but mostly it's OK.

I can understand about Ken Dodd. He was so funny.

I too have had jaw problems after the dentist - I have sometimes managed to improve things by pushing at the hinge point and slowly opening and closing my jaw. I have then heard it click back in.
Good luck with it.