A bit of background - last fall, I had an inexplicable tenderness on the left side of my neck. Naturally, I went to the doctor, thinking it was perhaps a swollen lymph node, or an ear infection. There was discomfort when swallowing and my ear felt ‘off’, and the pain/tenderness seemed to track with the path of my left Eustachian tube.
The doctor checked things out - no swollen lymph node, no signs of ear infection, no throat irritation.
I was puzzled, but after a few days, the symptom went away, and I haven’t really thought about it again, until last week, when it returned. It’s still bugging me today, but seems to have eased up a bit once I decided to treat it as a pulled muscle - gentle flexing, some application of heat, ibuprofen. That plus the twinges of pain I get when I stretch the muscle out by tilting my head to the right make me think I’m on the right track. The pain/tender area tracks to the Sternocleidomastoid muscle on the left side, even more closely than the Eustachian tube.
Still, I am puzzled. If it’s a muscle strain, I supposed any number of things might’ve caused it, but I’m looking for similar experiences and theories. I did spend several days the week before carrying a heavy backpack on the opposite shoulder, which might cause me to tense it more than is usual. I suppose I could have slept on it wrong, but I would have thought that would clear up more quickly. I’ve considered that I might be grinding my teeth in my sleep, but don’t see any obvious signs on the teeth themselves. Plus the pain’s only on the one side.
Well pain from TMJD can go from the top of your head to the middle of your back, and definitely be only on one side. In my experience, it’s only on one side (until it switches to the other side!) because you’re out of alignment and one side is taking the brunt of your gnashing. If you were in alignment you probably wouldn’t feel pain because the gnashing would be evenly spread out.
Any time I have ear pain and the doctor says my ear is fine, the problem has been with my jaw. I have been diagnosed with TMJD since 1997, though. So it’s a no-brainer for me. But even as a person who is well experience in both ear infections and jaw pain, I still get them confused.
The answer for my jaw pain - other than all of the orthodontics - is lying still with my jaw in a comfortable position, Aleve and ice.
Oh and my teeth show no evidence of ever having been ground. I clench, not grind. My dad’s teeth are almost nubs from grinding and he has no jaw pain whatsoever.
Dammit I had a long post typed out and lost it :-/
During the day, if you find yourself clenching, relax. Hold a pen/pencil between your front teeth. Or touch your tongue to the top of your mouth, holding your teeth apart. Let the muscles relax.
At night you will probably need an appliance/splint/bite guard. I’ve always had one created by my orthodontist. The last one was $400 I believe. It fits around my top teeth and puts about a 1/4" padding of plastic between my top and bottom teeth. It also pulls my bottom teeth forward if my mouth is closed (there’s a huge bump at the front over which I bite).
There are splints you can buy from the drugstore I believe, but YMMV. When I first got diagnosed, a thing called the NTI Appliance was the new thing. Now I see it’s all focused on migranes so the TMJD people must have come down on its claims of helping with TMJD.
I would talk to your dentist, personally. TMJD is a pretty complicated thing. Many dentists don’t know much about it (mine flat out told me he didn’t) but hopefully know someone to refer you to.
Note that TMJD treatment is usually not covered by any medical plan. But you might not need hardly any treatment, other than a nighttime appliance.
But if you have ear pain with no infection, I’m 99% sure you are having problems with your TMJ.
Anyway, I am having the same type of problems with no diagnosis of TMJ. Doctor said it seemed like the SMC was irritated but couldn’t explain why. I put up with the discomfort along the SMC until I decided it had to be something serious, like maybe I was being colonized by a space virus or something.
Long story almost short, had a CT scan of the neck. No signs of anything in the soft tissue but some interference with the nerve root between C5 and C6. Looked that up on the interwebbythingee and sure enough, the symptoms match perfectly.
I’m trying a course of PT for now to see if I can avoid any type of surgery.
You seem to be leaping to a diagnosis involving your teeth when the evidence indicates neck strain. If it is clenching though, I got over this by conciously keeping my jaw loose during the day. My doctor advised keeping my tongue between my teeth until that became habit, and in time my jaw did loosen up, including at night. But if this was a one time event, neck strain was the more likely candidate.
I’ve had the same problem for a month and am thinking of going to the doctor. I tried not moving it, I tried stretching it, I tried everything. It is not TMJ because I wear a mouth guard. I must have pulled something but it is just not going away.
