jaw pain

How To Get Rid Of Jaw Pain Following Dental Work

Pain in your jaw after visiting the dentist

Perhaps the dentist held or propped your jaw and head in such a way that it aggravated the muscles of your jaw. That can cause pain after a dental treatment. Sometimes they really prop a jaw wide open.

Here’s why you have jaw pain following dental work

If you were to hold your fingers and thumb stretched wide open for half an hour, the muscles in your hand would hurt, too. Muscles get strained when they are stretched too much.

And you have muscles all around your head, jaw and neck.

How can you get rid of the pain in your jaw?

If you tried heat and that makes your jaw feel a little worse then switch to cold packs. I know it’s not as pleasant but heat can cause muscles to feel worse. It can actually cause a little more inflammation or swelling in the muscles.

Use cold therapy on a wide area for the most benefit. Place cold packs or a bag of frozen peas on your jaw, temple and neck. When you feel numbness remove the cold pack.

Did you know the muscles in your temples are also jaw muscles?

If the dentist says he doesn’t see a reason for your pain following your dental treatment that’s good. Why?

Because muscles don’t show up on x-rays. But, they are most common cause of pain.

If you feel the need for a pain reliever, my personal favorite over the counter muscle pain reliever is Continue reading “How To Get Rid Of Jaw Pain Following Dental Work”

December 3November 3

Jaw Pain Can Be Caused By Temple Muscles

There are two sets of large muscles that can cause pain in your jaw and the area around your jaw joint: the massater muscles and the temporalis muscles. Check out the Category for Jaw Pain on this website for more articles on the massater and other muscles that can be involved.

You can feel the muscle that crosses your jaw joint if you place your fingers over the joint and pretend you are chewing. That’s the massater. You have two–one on each side.

You can also feel the temple muscles by placing your fingers on the sides of your head in line with your eyebrows and pretending to chew. Again, this muscle is on each side of your head. It the temporalis muscle.

There is a depression in your skull on each side and the temporalis muscle is packed in there. It’s actually a pretty good sized muscle.

The red area in the picture is Continue reading “Jaw Pain Can Be Caused By Temple Muscles”

June 26November 3

Pain In Your Jaw May Be Caused By Infection

If you have serious pain in your jaw, you can try doing massage on the muscles in your face. (<== click here.) But if that only helps for a short time and the pain comes back that could mean you have an abscess.

An abscess is an infection in the space around a tooth. It needs to be treated by a dentist. The first treatment is with an antibiotic to clear the infection and then you and your dentist will decide what to do next.

One man went to his doctor and to a dentist complaining about the pain in his face and the roof of his mouth. They ‘couldn’t see’ anything. The dentist ground down the surface of a molar guessing that that might have been the jaw pain problem.

But it wasn’t.

Neither doctor listened to his Continue reading “Pain In Your Jaw May Be Caused By Infection”

May 18November 3

Pain In Your Jaw And Teeth Can Be Caused By Muscles

I have heard horror stories about people having teeth removed because they were painful. But the problem is that the teeth were innocent!

After the tooth or teeth were pulled, the people still had tooth pain. The teeth were removed but the original cause of the pain wasn’t treated.

There is a strap-like muscle that attaches your lower jaw to your upper jaw. It allows you to chew and clench your teeth. It is called the massater. There is one on each side of your face.

When the massater develops trigger points (hyper-irritable areas of muscle that cause pain) it feels like the pain is in your teeth!

If you have pain on the top and bottom teeth on one whole side of your mouth there is a very good chance that the massater muscle is to blame.

Here’s the treatment:

Place your thumb on the Continue reading “Pain In Your Jaw And Teeth Can Be Caused By Muscles”

January 21November 6

Jaw Pain – Causes & Natural Cures for TMJ

Having a forward head posture puts a lot of strain on the muscles of your neck and jaw. Having a “forward head” means that your head (and often one or both shoulders, too) are in front of your body.

Where should your head be instead?

Well, when you were a toddler, it was pretty much directly over your body and that’s still where it should be. Due to habits, furniture, car seats, work and life, sometimes our head moves out in front of us.

That causes a lot of symptoms and temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ) pain, or pain and difficulty moving your jaw, can be one of those symptoms.

If chewing has been painful for you…

or if it’s been hard to open or move your jaw…

or if it feels as Continue reading “Jaw Pain – Causes & Natural Cures for TMJ”

January 18November 6

Muscles in Your Jaw Cause TMJ or Jaw Pain

Do you have pain in your jaw? Is it hard to open and close your mouth? Do you clamp your teeth together without even thinking about it?

Did you know that there are muscles around the joint of your jaw that will cause these symptoms? Let’s talk about those muscles and about that joint–the temporomandibular joint or TMJ.

If you have pain around your TMJ, you may have TMJD. TMJD means dysfunction of the TMJ. That means it doesn’t work as easily as it should.

There are muscles inside your mouth, outside your mouth and in your cheeks that can be tight. They can Continue reading “Muscles in Your Jaw Cause TMJ or Jaw Pain”

November 22November 6

TMJ Pain – Causes of Pain in Your Jaw

TMJ is shorthand for Temporomandibular Joint. That refers to your temple area and your jaw bone (mandible.) The joint is supposed to move smoothly but when it doesn’t you may end up with a diagnosis of TMJ Dysfunction or TMJD.

What can cause your TMJ to stop moving smoothly?

An injury or trauma that causes the joint to dislocate.
Overuse of the powerful jaw muscles in certain positions.
Sleeping always on the same side which may cause your jaw to “drop” to one side.
Having a “forward head” posture which puts a lot of strain on your neck and jaw muscles.
Dental work which Continue reading “TMJ Pain – Causes of Pain in Your Jaw”