Very occasionally, when I yawn I’ll feel something in my neck, maybe a muscle, suddenly twist and/or contract with a sudden stabbing pain that lasts for some time. It is sometimes accompanied with the feeling of a lump in the throat. It’s always deeply unpleasant, and the attack I had just now was the most painful I can remember.
The way of dealing with it that I’ve found is to look straight down, chin as flat against chest as possible, and massage the affected area until the pain starts to subside.
I’ve never known anyone else to suffer from this. Do any other dopers get the same thing? What is happening and what is causing it??
I get something similar. I yawn and when I open my mouth really wide I get a ridiculously nasty pain, but usually in my jaw. I use the same way to get rid of it, but no idea as to what’s happening or the cause.
Yes, I’ve had that happen, though not often, fortunately. I don’t know what causes it, but my suspicion is that it’s a muscle adhesion letting go, due to the unusual stretching activity yawning can cause.
What I get more often is my jaw popping or cracking, though both of those are feeble words for the painfully loud sound it makes.
The pain is so unexpected and so sharp that I defensively spin my shoulder around, as if I’m reacting to a physical attack. It feels almost as if someone has stabbed me in the neck on my blind side.
Not a very pleasant feeling, but fortunately rare.
Now mallocks mentions it, it’s probably more accurate to say it (the pain) is under the jaw, where it meets the neck. Certainly sounds like the same thing!
Davebear, I get the jaw-cracking thing too. Because of it I have a particular fear of being punched in the face, for I am certain the lightest love-tap would break it. It just feels so fragile when it does that! Then I’d have to wear one of those full-neck braces and eat through a straw for months on end, etc…
Yes. I first noticed it a few months after I broke my jaw (or rather someone broke it for me.) It’s a very strange thing. It occurs randomly and after long intervals. A quick search on webmd shows that we all may be suffering from TMD.
Another Doper with the Phantom Neck-Charley-Horse Of Doom here.
At least, that’s the physical sensation closest to it that I can think of. Worst for me is that it’s not totally unexpected. I usually have about a half second warning before the tendon knots up, or whatever it is.
Just enough to time to think, “Oh, shit, not again!”
Yeah, I do that. It usually happens when I yawn while my head is turned. It feels like one of the cartilage rings around the trachea is out of place, ow ow ow! I’ve learned to feel for a lump in my neck and pop it back into place.
Well, I can tell you that you don’t need to worry about that one. At least, not just because of the yawning thing. I’ve been punched in the jaw, and all it did was leave a bruise and knock my hat off (which is an indication that it was a pretty good punch).
They’re called temporomandibular joints, as in Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) or Temporomandibular Joint disorders (TMJ). But, I don’t think I really have either of those. My understanding is that those disorders cause pain during normal chewing, and I never get that (except from cavities).
Good luck with that skull transplant, though. Let us know how it works out (if you can). Are you sure you don’t want to go with the Disembodied-Personality-In-A-Glowing-Orb-On-A-Stick option, instead?
Every now and then I get a massive, stabbing pain just behind my chin (about 1 inch) when I open my mouth wide. It feels like a wicked cramp and I can actually feel a tight knot in my muscle (the mandible?) in that spot. It goes away in about 5 seconds but christ it hurts when its there.
I thought I had gone nuts, I get this occasionally, and whenever I ask somebody, “hey, you ever get a weird muscle cramp under your chin when you yawn?” they look at me like I’m crazy. I’m very relieved to know I’m not the only one.
Fellow TMJ sufferer speaking up. (See the illustration in Bulla Felix’s link? Yup, that’s me.) Mine is so bad that I have to squish sandwiches to a more managable thickness before I can take a bite. :o ← absolutely impossible
Anyway, I do get those neck-muscle-cramps of which you think, and I always thought I got them because I don’t open my mouth really wide when I yawn. Mine are more to the side, though, which makes me think it’s a cramp in one of my scalenes or sternocleidomastoid muscles (and I did know the names of the muscles before I looked up the illustrations… ). But you’re saying this is in the middle of your neck? Weird…
It sometimes happens to me, too. If I yawn for too long or open my mouth too wide I’ll feel a cramp my jaw and chin. It lasts about 8 to 10 seconds and then it will go away. I try to make it go away faster by moving my lower jaw in various directions, not sure if helps, though. It’s painful as hell. Dammit, I hate when it happens!
). But you’re saying this is in the middle of your neck? Weird…