What causes pain in one side of the jaw while opening the mouth or biting?

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I am a maxillofacial surgeon and dentist. I will be answering your query shortly. Please check your follow-up messages.

Thank you.

Hello, Welcome back to icliniq.com.

So usually if there is no dental involvement of the teeth, then the pain when you open the mouth will always be a result of the temporomandibular joint ( TMJ) issues only. Some people also report that the mouth opening gets limited with time, so that is also a symptom related to the joint only. I suggest you the following measures : Firstly you need to relax the TMJ (Tempromandibular joint) and eliminate any possible torsion or stress on it. So you need to avoid any stress on it, and for that reason, you should not stretch your mouth too wide, not even while yawning. The less you widen your mouth while talking, sleeping, or yawning, the more you find that the pain will start coming down. You can give frequent ice pack application to the area of the right jaw where it is paining. This will really help relieve on-and-off pain temporarily. I would suggest you take at least for four to five days a month this muscle relaxant combination of Aceclofenac (100.0 mg), Chlorzoxazone (500.0 mg), and Paracetamol or Acetaminophen (325.0 mg) (tablet Hifenac MR or local brands will vary with this composition). You can take this four to five days a month twice daily, once after breakfast or lunch and once after dinner time till you feel your pain is getting at least temporarily relieved. You will notice over time eventually that the TMJ (temporomandibular joint) is less stressed and your pain will start coming down permanently. Physiotherapy is essential meaning that you need to just gently start stretching and closing your jaw. For example when you open your mouth gently, slowly widen it then close it again. again slowly widen it and then gently close again. You can keep on increasing the width of your jaw opening but again like instruction one you should not exert any over-pressure on the jaw or strain your facial muscles maybe around 10 to 15 minutes. Every day you can do these gentle stretches that is it. You can watch exercises on oral myofunctional therapy or posture relaxation techniques. Those visuals can help you definitely OMT (oral myofunctional therapy) exercises but only gentle opening and closing without any stress on the jaw, the focus should be only on widening the jaw. Finally most importantly, if you are biting when there is pain, it means dental cause cannot be ruled out. So you should get an in-depth clinic check-up by your dentist or oral surgeon. Sometimes there would be referred or radiating pain from the jaws because of an infected tooth that causes compression of the jaw nerves. If your dentist in the clinic diagnoses only a jaw issue through an X-ray like OPG (orthopantomogram) or CBCT (cone beam computed tomography) commonly what we use, then you will be given an occlusal splint to wear for a duration of time like six months to one year till the TMJ issue is solved. But if the cause is dental and not TMJ related, then definitely you should get the root cause treated. I hope you are getting my point right. So to summarise, OMT (oral myofunctional therapy) exercises, meditation, stress relaxation techniques, gentle stretches of the jaw but without much force on the joint, and following the tablet course of Aceclofenac and Acetaminophen every month for at least five days till you notice a change in your TMJ pain all this will definitely help you over time relieve the symptoms of joint pain. The causes can be multiple for your jaw pain. It would be best if you consult an in-clinic surgeon so they can palpate the joint, examine dentally to rule out any tooth infection or decay, and will give you the remedies I listed now. Either occlusal splints or dental remedies and TMJ manipulation can be done. Ice packs, meditation, and stress relaxation all will help. More sleep and a very soft diet will definitely help too. If you have further doubts, you can ask me anytime. I am always here to help you. Do you feel the cause is dental or joint-related because you have had the pain for the last seven months? How do you feel about this?

Thank you.