Limited and painful lower jaw movement after wisdom tooth extraction.

Limited and painful lower jaw movement after wisdom tooth extraction.

I had a wisdom tooth extracted 2 weeks ago in my lower jaw. A week after i could open my mouth only partially and not able to feed myself because of pain on the right lower jaw where it is atached to the upper jaw. I went back to the dentist and he prescribed Metrenidazole 400mg. It is a week now after commnecing antibiotic but there is no change . i cannot open my mouth and it is very painful when i try to force open it, and therefore can feed myself mostly on fluids. Please advise. Thank you.

[Jerome Bogin, D.D.S.]

What you are probably experiencing is what we call trismus--this can occur from the trauma associated with the extraction or from the injection.The muscles that open and close your jaw go into spasm and with the pain they are not stretched or used. It gets worse and worse. I think you need to get some tongue blades and place them between your teeth adding as many as you can to break the adhesions in the muscles.It is painful but you need to do it gradually.Each day the opening should get wider and wider. The worst case scenario is that put you to sleep and break the adhesions that way.

[mike1105]

you should see an oral surgeon to evaluate the problem.