You may have experienced sore jaw joint many times, it is usually acute in nature but some time it can prevail for a longer duration and can turn into a chronic problem. Sore jaw can be of two types, the one in which the primary focus of problem is with the jaw joint itself, and other is sore jaw joint secondary to some other disease in the body. The former condition needs a dentist or an ENT doctor whereas the referred sore pain in the jaw needs to be addressed by a physician.
Symptoms of sore jaw joint can be of one side or both the sides, difficulty in chewing, difficulty in talking, difficult jaw movement, and pain on moving opening and closing joint. Concomitant symptoms include headache, clicking or popping sound, soreness in facial muscles.
Causes of Sore Jaw Joint and Bone
- One of the commonest causes of one sided jaw pain is temporomandibular joint or TMJ joint pain, the jaw joint cannot open properly and there is excruciating pain in the jaw with closing or opening the jaw.
- Grinding or clenching of teeth is one of the common causes of sore jaw joint. Nail biting can also cause this condition. The treatment includes pain killers, jaw exercise and relaxation therapy, mouth splints and mouth guards or surgery in incurable condition.
- Trauma to jaw can cause sore jaw joint.
- As for other body joints, arthritis can affect jaw bone and cause sore jaw.
- Any bone growth around the jaw joint may result into sore jaw joint.
- Abscess, infection in teeth, and ear can cause sore jaw joint.
- Secondary cause includes a serious condition not directly related to jaw; it is heart ischemia or heart attack. There is a referred pain in the jaws during the heart attack, which may be the only sign of heart attack in some cases, it sometimes is very misleading and therefore needs quick medical attention.
Treatment of Sore Jaw Joint
- Eat food not too hard.
- Do not talk too much or laugh loudly.
- Give rest to temporomadibular joint.
- Avoid eating food that produces more saliva, spices and pickles are avoided.
- Hot compresses on the sore jaw joint is the safest home remedy.