Do you frequently experience pain in your mouth? While sometimes jaw pain can feel like an infected tooth, often it is a result of jaw pain from problems with your temporomandibular joints (TMJs). These joints connect your lower jawbone (the mandible) located near your ear to the side of your skull (temporal bone). These joints enable you to move your jaw forward, backward, and side-to-side.
A disc separates the bones in the joint, allowing the jaw movement. The TMJ acts as a sliding hinge so you can swallow, speak, and chew. Should this TMJ disc or joint be damaged, you can have problems on either or both sides of your jaw, with the pain stemming from your jaw muscles and joints instead of a tooth. With three kinds of TMJ disorders, you might find yourself experiencing one of the following, causing your pain:
- Myofascial pain manifests as a deep, aching pain in your jaw joint muscles
- Internal derangement (of the TMJ joint) stemming from injury to the jaw
- Degenerative disease arising from arthritis in the TMJs
How do you know if your jaw pain comes from your TMJs?
A big red flag is feeling jaw pain that leaves you with chronic headaches, earaches, neck pain, or backaches, especially when you are yawning, eating, coughing, or sneezing. You might even notice that your jaw keeps locking up (lockjaw), and your jaw’s range of motion is limited.
Dealing with TMJ Jaw Pain
It can help to stick to soft foods and liquids to give your jaw a break from chewing. It may also lower any inflammation in the joint muscles. You can also try applying an ice pack or cold compress on the outside of your face where the pain is predominant. It helps with inflammation as well. You could also try using over-the-counter painkillers to lower inflammation and relieve pain as well. If the problem persists, you will likely need to come in to visit our TMJ specialist for an evaluation and other remedies that can help, including BOTOX injections.
BOTOX® Injections For Jaw Pain
BOTOX® injections have been proven to reduce jaw pain from tension. These injections help your jaw muscles relax so they can’t clench and leave you with pain in the jaw or head by relaxing those muscles surrounding your jaw joints. It also makes it harder for you to grind your teeth (known as bruxism), which can also lead to headaches. Treating jaw pain and headaches with BOTOX injections is convenient, easy, fast and affordable.
Signs You Might Have a TMJ Disorder
- Your bite is misaligned
- Previous jaw injury
- Have a jaw infection
- Chronic ringing in your ears
- Arthritis in your jaw or damaged jaw tissue
- Have damaged cartilage in your jaw joint
- Your jaw constantly feels tender and painful to the touch
- Hearing clicking or popping noises when you open your mouth or chew
- Getting frequent earaches
- Random jaw joint locking, making it hard to open or close your mouth
- Constant bruxing (clenching your jaw and grinding your teeth)
Seek Help – Call Today!
You do not have to live with chronic pain in your jaw, ears, head, neck, temple, cheek, face, lower jaw or teeth! There is relief available whether your pain is dull, throbbing or searing. If your TMJ pain doesn’t seem to improve no matter what you have tried, we urge you to schedule a visit with our experienced team for an evaluation. We can pinpoint the cause of your TMJ pain and offer effective treatment options to give you the relief you need! You can be pain-free, so please call today!
