When you experience jaw or facial pain, it is regular to believe instantly that your teeth are the cause. Despite the fact that this might hold true in most cases, there are likewise several medical conditions that can be contributing aspects; this possibility makes diagnosis and treatment far more challenging. It is essential that you seek advice from both a dental professional and your doctor.
What Causes Jaw Pain
Jaw pain can take place all on an unexpected or it might grow over time, but that depends on the cause. You may feel moderate pain, or it can be painful sufficient to make you uncomfortable while opening your mouth to eat something. Jaw pain can be detected by our routine activities like chewing, swallowing or in some cases by touching the jaw area. Jaw pain can be treated by embracing many home remedies or it can be prevented supplying an appropriate amount of rest to the jaw area, taking little bites of the food while eating and by avoiding foods that need to chew a lot.
Lots of patients who experience chronic jaw pain aim to treat themselves with over-the-counter pain relievers or prescription narcotics intended for the use of other relative. To appropriately treat the pain, you require a medical diagnosis; painkillers resolve the symptoms and not the cause. This can create other issues for the patient that make complex diagnosis. There are major side effects from the overuse of painkillers: Taking extreme amounts of over-the-counter ibuprofen or acetaminophen can cause kidney necrosis and liver failure, respectively. Abuse of prescription narcotics can result in addiction.
If you are experiencing jaw pain, it is essential for your dental expert or oral surgeon to conduct an extensive exam. This typically includes dental X-rays, CAT scans and often blood work. A dental origin of the pain must be dismissed prior to blood work is carried out.
How Is Jaw Pain Treated?
The dental causes of jaw or facial pain consist of rotted or abscessed teeth, gum infection (gum abscess), teeth grinding, temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ) and injury to your jaws. These causes can be dealt with by your dental professional or oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Decayed or abscessed teeth will be treated with root canal, fillings, or extractions. Gum infections will be treated with antibiotics and deep scaling.
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction is the most hard problem to treat since it has multiple possible causes. The pain might originate in the muscles of the jaw or a dysfunction of the joint. Misalignment of the teeth might be another contributing element and can be remedied with braces. If the reason for the pain is due to the muscles, it may be treated with muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatory drugs and a mouth guard. Dysfunction of the joint might be treated with anti-inflammatory drugs and arthroscopic surgery.
Trauma to the jaws can cause injury to the bones, muscles, temporomandibular joint and teeth. These types of injuries can be treated with muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatory drugs and surgery. Additional medical causes of jaw or facial pain consist of dislocation of the jaw, arthritis, angina, cluster headaches, ear infections, cysts or tumors, cardiac arrest, sinus infection, migraine, stress and trigeminal neuralgia.
Cardiovascular disease can be the most serious cause of facial pain. Individuals most often experience chest pain with a cardiovascular disease, however this pain radiates to the jaw. Some cardiovascular disease patients will experience pain only in the jaw. Another condition that can cause jaw pain is angina; angina takes place when the heart muscle does not have oxygen.
Cluster headaches, ear infections and migraines are all conditions that cause pain to radiate to the jaws. Cyst or growths in the jaws and sinus infections will cause pain that radiates to the teeth. Trigeminal neuralgia is a condition that causes excruciating jaw and facial pain. The pain is short-lasting and only on one side of the face. It can likewise be shooting, stabbing or electrical in nature. This condition might likewise mimic dental pain. Trigeminal neuralgia is typically misdiagnosed, and many patients go through baseless dental procedures. This condition can be treated with medication and appropriate surgeries.
As you can see, jaw pain has lots of causes. It is very important not to treat only the symptoms however to seek expert aid. Your dental professional and doctor ought to be involved early on to detect the problem and to develop the proper treatment plan.
Jaw Pain FAQ
Is my jaw pain from wisdom teeth?
What age do people get their wisdom teeth. I’m 24 and I’m having jaw pain on the right side of my head/face. Is this from my wisdom teeth being available in? How do you understand when they are coming in?
Answer: Jaw pain can come from several sources, and one of them is the eruption of 3rd molars (wisdom teeth) or the crowding that they can cause. While you are within the appropriate age variety for this to be the cause, there are other causes which might possibly be more typical. If you feel that you are constantly under big amounts of stress, it is quite possible that you are grinding your teeth (bruxism, as it is called by physicians and dental experts) which this is resulting in some soreness in your jaw. This soreness can contribute to or even be the exact same as another syndrome called Temporo-mandibular joint dysfunction syndrome, or TMJ. This is basically inflammation of one of the joints of your jaw, and is typical. It can generally be dealt with conservatively with good results (conservative treatment significance exercises, rest, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, etc). Sometimes, either for bruxism or for TMJ, a bite block can be useful to minimize the symptoms. There are undoubtedly numerous other factors that you can be having jaw pain, and if it continues you ought to see a health expert, either your doctor (most likely an ENT aka otolaryngologist) or your dental professional.
What keeps triggering erratic jaw pain?
My jaw. It harms ever once in a while. I am a 34 year old guy. I see the dental professional like I should. Absolutely nothing’s ever been wrong, now my jaw begins harming every time I chew my food. Am I doing something incorrect?
Answer: There are numerous things that can cause jaw pain, and I am sorry to hear that you are having to deal with this. Among the more common problems among youths with no other most likely problems is temporomandibular jaw syndrome, or TMJ. This frequently comes from at the user interface of where your jaw gets in touch with your skull, and small alterations in the orientation of the joint can cause reoccurring pain with chewing, headaches, sharp shooting pains, and other common issues with your jaw. The pain or discomfort can come and go, and differs from individual to person about how much it impacts your life.
There are many treatments available, beginning with conservative approaches such as jaw exercises and over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs such as ibuprofen). After those approaches have been tried, there are other treatment alternatives also, varying all the method to surgery for those who continue to have facial pain. It is essential to consult with your dental expert or an ear-nose-and throat surgeon (aka otolaryngologist) or an oro-maxillo-facial surgeon (aka OMFS) to make sure that you actually are having TMJ, as other things can cause jaw pain, a few of which might be severe. Please see a doctor if this problem continues to bother you or you have other symptoms.
Why does my jaw hurt when I open my mouth?
As long as my mouth is closed, I don’t have jaw pain. However the minute I speak or try to eat I get this pain.
Answer: Sorry to hear that you are suffering from jaw pain, and want to let you understand that this can both be common and can frequently be easily dealt with. The key is detecting what your specific issue may be, so it’s essential to see a health care specialist. You don’t mention too many information, however one of the common issues is temporo mandibular joint dysfunction syndrome, in which the joint that moves the jaw is impacted and doesn’t move in the way that it should to make the jaw work and feel right. This can take place for many reasons, and most often it can be corrected with suitable suggestions from a dental practitioner or oral surgeon. In some cases, a mouth guard might be among the best tools to fix the problem, in that it can assist to keep the teeth from grinding.
Now, it is necessary to realize that TMJ is just one of numerous issues that can cause jaw pain, which is why you have to see a healthcare expert, to make sure that you are well which there is not a larger problem than TMJ. Please speak with your doctor or dental practitioner to get the care you have to help you feel much better.