TMJ Experiences...

[hughgrant]

I have not been to a doctor / dentist about this yet, so I was hoping to find out a bit about patient experiences.

I'm a 24 year old male, and have had no jaw problems until a few months ago. When eating my dinner one night, my jaw (on the left side) seemed to 'pop' out of place, or crack. Anyway, it didn't particularly hurt, but felt strange for a few seconds, the way any cracking joint does. Anyway, a couple of days after that, I could barely open my mouth! Ths went on for a few days. A couple of weeks later my jaw started to kill again, and I was struggling to open it. This was still on the left side, but suddenly the right side started to hurt as well, without popping or anything.

Since then I have occassional aches, and sensations that feel as though my jaw is trying to play tricks on me again, although it hasn't been particularly severe.

Is this a common experience? What is it like for everyone else?

[Havraha]

My jaw seems to flare up and ache to various degrees.  I have one jaw joint that "pops" constantly when I open very wide.  The other side of the joint constantly hurts and crackles whenever I swallow.

Its common for pain from one side of the jaw to move to the other, mainly because the jaw joints are connected to one another, but also because the TMJ is kind of the nexus of the face and pain seems to "radiate" out to different parts.  I often get a feeling of "fullness" in my ear, and even more often than that my back tooth aches.  Its called "referred pain" ... it hurts there even though you WEREN'T hurt there.

Problems opening the mouth wide MAY, and I say MAY very loosely because I'm not a doctor, point to a displaced disc.  The disc is a kind of cushion of cartilage that keeps your jaw moving smoothly, and in about 40% of Americans its estimated, detatches from where its supposed to be and either slides forward, causing the constant "popping" sound when it pops back into its normal place, or slides backwards, which results in limited mouth opening.

Definitely go to your dentist and tell him every symptom.  And until then, do NOT poke at your jaw, or flex your jaw, or do ANYTHING to it.  In my experience, its a finicky little thing that just wants to be left alone.  Relaxation and pain medication are the best things you can do to manage whatever discomfort you may have.