I just popped my jaw joint...now what?

[TheMarchingMule]

So I go to my orthodontist this morning. I was really tired, and coupled with the whole "Open your mouth" thing I yawned a lot.

Well, turns out I yawned too wide, heard a few pops, a shift in my lower jaw a bit, and now I'm back home realizing something awful.

I can open my mouth fine when it's done slowly, but when I open it quickly I can feel my right jawbone joint shift. It's a nasty and downright annoying feeling.

I looked up on Google, and it seems for right now I should just take it easy and see if my jaw muscles eventually fix themselves.

I don't feel any pain, but I don't know if it really affected my teeth alignment.

Any thing you guys want to add? It'd be really helpful because I'm kind of scared of this whole deal here.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jigglybootch]

I would take it easy and see if things go back to normal on their own. But this doesn't sound normal and I wouldn't wait too long to get it checked out if it persists.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jigglybootch /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would take it easy and see if things go back to normal on their own. But this doesn't sound normal and I wouldn't wait too long to get it checked out if it persists.

Well, it's not as serious as this: (http://www.healthsquare.com/mc/fgmc0713.htm), but I'm still

about this.

Oh wait...ROFL I just tired opening and closing my jaw really fast. It's fixed!

Yay for taking risks.

But yeah, I'll see what happens if the issue comes back. For now I think I'll still let my jaw rest for today.

 

[ken36]

Give it a chance to work itself out.

 

[Jigglybootch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken36 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Give it a chance to work itself out.

For the moment, it seems like it has.

 

[jules650]

If there is no pain and your bite feels normal I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[Orcin]

You should immediately find a comfortable chair near your listening station, put on headphones, and listen to some music that you really enjoy. I would say this needs to be done for several hours, if not the rest of the day.

 

[blessingx]

Be careful. I'd still sit down and completely relax. Sometimes a popped jaw can simulate the five point palm-exploding heart technique, so you don't really want to walk around after that.

 

[ecclesand]

It may be a precursor to LockJaw, so you probably should use caution when biting things...

 

[Judge Crandall]

I'd recommend being careful and trying to avoid popping your jaw anymore. I somehow managed to figure out how to do that on my own at will. I got carried away with it and now I have what you described all the time. When it first happened, if I opened my mouth too fast or things just didn't align right, my jaw would lock up and hurt like hell. Doesn't really happen anymore, but the first time was pretty freaky. It's really annoying because I feel things shifting if I open my mouth too quickly and it makes it hard to open my mouth very wide. I should probably get it checked out at some point. Maybe when I have better dental insurance...

 

[kramer5150]

Ouch..
I did that once, eating a bagel on a cold morning. Loud POP! and I was very sore for 3-4 days. I couldn't even open my mouth wide enough to eat. I survived on a healthy diet of Ensure milkshakes and thin slices of turkey lunchmeat. Fortunately I could open my mouth wide enough to suck down some advil and that helped a lot.

My wife is a dentist and says this is very common. Its a ligament that pulls/strains. She says in severe cases you can stretch/tear it

, to the point of a more serious injury.

 

[scompton]

Be careful even if it seems fixed now. When my wife did it, it took about a year for it to go back to normal. She had to wear a mouth piece and get nightly jaw massages to fix it.

 

[Jigglybootch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scompton /img/forum/go_quote.gif Be careful even if it seems fixed now. When my wife did it, it took about a year for it to go back to normal. She had to wear a mouth piece and get nightly jaw massages to fix it.

I don't think that's going to calm him down...

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jigglybootch /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't think that's going to calm him down...

Haha!

Thanks guys for your messages of humor and concern. I feel fine now, but since my teeth were tweaked today, I can't tell yet if the soft pain I feel is from the wire or the jaw incident.

 

[Davesrose]

I think someone has just spent too much time looking up "dislocated jaw" and such on the internet!

Slight pain is an indicator to relax and not worry. Getting hung up on a strain only makes it worst. I know I've been going through massive stress in buying a house. Last week I even had heart pains and couldn't get to sleep. At first it really felt like a heart attack. But then I remembered that I was going through stress......so my brain told me that I was having acid reflux. Sure enough, the next day I got some tums and all was right again.