Very Strange Jaw Thing---TMJ Disorder?

Woke up this morning with pain in my left jaw, right at the joint in front of the ear. I also have a bit of an earrache. When I open my mouth to any extent I get more pain, and if I slide my jaw to the left I can hear a distinctive click, and feel it too. This part is not particularly painful.

I do not grind my teeth, clench my jaw or do anything else to stress the joint or mouth, so I'm wondering why this should happen.

But what makes me really weirded out is that if I slide the jaw to the right, the left side of my face starts to tremble. I doubt if all this has anything to do with MS, but the trembling has me puzzled.

Anyone knowledgeable or experienced with this?

Thanks,
ess

[tarter]

To essdipty,

My sister just got dx with TMJ she also had a sensation on opposite side and earache.
The dentist dx her straight away they had her move her jaw from side to side and that tarted it off.

She is going in hospital to have this put right but i know she has suffered at night and like you woke up with it.

I had a ear pain with jaw discomfort 2 yrs ago but my doc thought it was some nerve problem its dificult with MS knowing if its connected or not.

Hope you get sorted soon tarter

[Quixotic1]

The way MS can affect our TMJ is by increasing the muscle tone or spasms of the chewing muscles and muslces of facial expression.  These are not uncommon. These muscles are controlled by the third branch of the Trigeminal Nerve (Cranial Nerve V3). If the muscles get inappropriate stimulation you can get spasm or increased tone.

The reason that a problem on one side will affect the other side is that the jaw is rigid all the way across.  If something displaces it on one side it is equally displaced on the other side but the action on the joint is reversed.

Of course TMJ can happen on it's own, too.

Quix

[Quixotic1]

Oh, and V3 (the Trigeminal Nerve, branch three) also supplies the sensory output from the TMJ.  So a problem like TN can appear as TMJ pain.  I would think that it is possible that the TN could show up as solely TMJ pain.  In that case you wouldn't have pain on the oppisite side unless there was some compensatory spasm in the muscles of chewing caused by the pain or by CN V itslef.

Q

[LLWB]

I also woke up one morning with jaw pain, ear ache, pain along side of and above ear, etc. Couldn't open mouth wide or eat without pain. After a couple of months of suffering (I'm a glutton for punishment) I finally went to the dentist. I have an internal derangment of the temporal/mandibular disc. It has shifted out of place, putting stress on the jaw muscles, and the trigeminal nerves.  Most probably caused by my degenerative osteoarthritis.

Just put this out there, as we all know that not EVERY sx is caused by MS. We (especially us older decrepit persons) can have several things go wrong with us.  The best way to know is to see your dentist.. Good luck, I know how painful it is.

Maggie

[ShockedToday]

Hi, I suffer from severe TMJ.  My jaw pops out of alignment at least once a week.  The majority of the time is occurs while I'm sleeping and I'll wake up and have to try and pop it back into alignment.  This is not painful at all.

On several occasions the nerve (I'm guessing as I have no proof) has gotten inflamed and I've been in horrible pain that even pain killers could not touch.  Once I had the pain for three months and wanted to die.  I hate saying that, but it is the truth.  Then one day I woke up and it was gone.

I've never told the neuro about that.  Maybe I should?

If it happens more often, you can get a mouth guard at the drug store (don't get one from the dentist as they charge a fortune....hundreds of dollars........for the exact same thing) to put in your mouth while you are sleeping.  It helps some.

Anyway, I hope what I've said has helped you.  

ST