Jaw Pain – Causes of Jaw Pain - By: ricky pontingg

Are you suffering from a stiff feeling in your jaw? Or even worse, pain in your jaw and/or inner ear pain? What you may be experiencing is what is commonly referred to as TMJ (or Tempro-Mandibular Joint Dysfunction Syndrome). It is a fairly common ailment for people who tend to grind their teeth. This is what is also referred as Bruxism.

Do any of these symptoms sound like the kind of lower jaw pain you're having? Clicking or popping jaw, sore jaw, jaw ache, locked jaw, clenching jaw or does it feel like a dislocated jaw? If so, your jaw and jaw pain can be treated and possibly cured and most of the time naturally. Of course removing the cause is the most important part once it's recognized or diagnosed.

The textbook Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction written by Janet Travell, M.D. pioneered the concept of referred pain problems. This concept is also called trigger point theory. Dr. Travell discusses how inflexibility or trauma in specific muscles will cause pain to corresponding regions of the body. Dr. Travell's trigger point theory illuminated the finding that the area where pain is felt and the source of pain can be two separate regions.

The TMJ is responsible for the movement of the lower jaw. If you notice carefully, it is only the lower jaw in our mouth that is movable. When we chew, yawn, grind or even talk, it is the lower jaw that goes up and down or sideways. So now you know why hand puppeteers move the lower jaw of the puppets only!

TMJ starts with lower jaw pain, and be caused by many different reasons. Some of these are trauma (car accident, a punch to the jaw, etc...) to the joint, extended amount of stress (stress causes us to clinch the jaw) or hereditary causes such as arthritis, etc... No matter what caused it for you, the pain is all the same. It's hard to sleep, eat, or even be happy!

While an uneven bite or occlusion is the #1 cause of TMJ pain problems, there are a host of other non-teeth alignment issues at the root of all TMJ jaw pain issues. For instance, other than the obvious cause of being punched in the jaw, if you are the worrisome type you may be clenching your teeth at night while sleeping. Another less obvious cause of TMJ is from being involved in a motor vehicle accident where you are hit from behind.

We all know the significance of opening and closing our mouth on a daily basis. You eat, talk and drink through our mouth. Due to TMJ pain if the opening and closing of the mouth is compromised even slightly you feel the brunt of it. Since this joint is located extremely close to the ears, any pain caused to the former will have repercussions on the latter.

There are several precursors for the pain like stress and even orthodontic braces. Sometimes the braces may be applying pressure at the wrong place because they have moved so they start causing pain. Constant tooth grinding also leads to jaw pain.

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