What to do When Intense Pain Develops in the Jaw?

According to the Mayo Clinic, severe jaw pain is often caused by temporomandibular disorders (TMD). This causes problems with the jaw, the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), which connects your lower jawbone to your skull. Other problems include popping, clicking and crunching noises, jaw locking, headaches and ear pain. TMD affects between 5 and 15 percent of people in the United States, according to The American Dental Association. Generally, more women are affected by this disorder than men. Most TMD disorders are handled without any dental or surgical procedures.

Identify the Cause of the Problem

• Temporomandibular disorders occur when the joint is damaged due to a sudden blow or impact. They also occur when the muscles surrounding the joint become fatigued from clenching or grinding your teeth. TMD can also arise when arthritis damages the joint's cartilage, and/or the disc erodes or is dislocated from its proper alignment. Often, a visit to your dentist is required, as well as medical tests and X-rays, if no immediate event caused the pain. Your dentist can perform X-rays and other tests to determine if there was arthritis, disc erosion (the nerves and plates in the jaw form discs in the lower part of the jaw that help to absorb shock, just as you have discs along your spine) or another less obvious cause of jaw pain.

Diagnosis

• Since many other conditions can cause similar TMD symptoms, your doctor will check for joint pain or tenderness, examine your facial muscle functions and listen for popping, grating or clicking sounds from your jaw. In some cases, your doctor may conduct a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or a computer tomography scan (CT) to see if the TMJ disc is in its proper place or view the joint's bone detail.

Treatment

• Since most TMD can be handled without surgical procedures, there are several effective home remedies. For example, you could apply moist heat or cold packs to your face and temple for 10 minutes. Just eat soft foods such as ice cream, mashed potatoes or cottage cheese. You can take ibuprofen or aspirin for pain, wear a night guard in your mouth to lessen the jaw muscle strain or use stress reduction therapy.

  In severe cases there are three surgeries that can be implemented: arthrocentesis, arthroscopy and open-joint surgery. Arthrocentesis surgery is usually for patients with a restricted jaw opening and have no prior TMJ problems. Your doctor inserts a needle in the painful joint area and washes it out with sterile fluids. Arthroscopy surgery uses a tiny scope with a lens and light inserted in front of your ear. This procedure helps your doctor to remove inflamed tissue or realign your disc. Open-joint surgery is the most invasive of the three, because it opens the entire area around the TMJ. This procedure is used if tumors are found in or near your TMJ, or if you have severe scarring of the joint's bone or joint bone deterioration.