Suffering from jaw pains and not being aware of the cause could be disturbing and alarming at the very least. Temporomandibular disorder comes with many symptoms that may be as many as the causes. The disorder is not unusual, however, and quite some people suffer from it. Although it is believed that most chronic diseases affect older people, this one is more common in young people. To get a better understanding of TMD and its symptoms, you can read more about the possible causes of jaw pain below. The pain in the muscle and joints of the face and jaw is what is referred to as a temporomandibular disorder. Due to this, you may experience some discomfort when eating, but it could also be present when talking.
TMD could be extremely painful, but the symptoms are a lot more manageable. The symptoms could appear from nowhere or be more consistent and cause pain for a while. It could be painful chewing and could come with a little trouble. The difficulties in chewing are as a result of jaw pain and tenderness in muscles and joints. You could experience a locked jaw every once in a while. TMD could cause the jaw to get stuck in open or closed positions. If you find it difficult to move your jaw, this could be another sign that you could be suffering from TMD.
There are no absolute causes of TMD that are known to doctors since there are many things that could cause the symptoms of TMD to present themselves. The main positive is that the symptoms are mostly acute and can be controlled with ease.
Injuries are just one of the causes of TMD. Traumatic injuries could cause damage to your head and neck muscles leading to symptoms of TMD. The symptoms could also be as a result of direct impact to the head especially the are near the jaw.
If the temporomandibular joint has been affected by arthritis either hereditary or from a prior injury, it could cause symptoms of TMD to appear. Rheumatoid arthritis patients experience jaw pains more predominantly. From this, medical experts have concluded that there is a relationship between the two. You could also be experiencing jaw pains and other TMD symptoms as a result of disc erosion. The jaw may move out of its natural position due to asymmetries that may result from erosion of the TMJ disc which is painful and dangerous.
Another possible cause of TMD is grinding and clenching your teeth or bruxism as some people may commonly refer to it. Constant bruxism could damage your teeth and cause a misaligned bite.