Sunday, October 9, 2011

My Jar Pops Out At Night. Should I See A Doctor..?

396545381 I'm 13. I grind my teeth at night. And I hate the doctor. Last night I woke up at 3:30am and my jar poped out when I opened my mouth. I thought it would go away tonight but it'/ 4;30 and ot happend again. It only hurt whens I pop it. I was laying on my left side an I have a very firm pillow. Could it just be the pillow? Please help!
Posted by at
Labels:

1 comment:

  1. rebesOctober 9, 2011 at 7:00 AM

    angziety - You could have TMJ disorder (temporomandibular joint disorder). It's a very common thing. For whatever reason (stress? genetics? something else?) you grind your teeth (bruxism is the medical term for grinding your teeth), and this puts a lot of strain on your jaw muscles and the general area. After a while they become inflamed and problematic. Sometimes people will have problems with their jaw popping or even popping out of place (and sometimes even locking!). Pain also goes along with it. The muscles of your jaw connect to the muscles all over your skull so you can get headaches and everything.. it can become a very bothersome thing. Some get physical therapy and the therapists massage the entire skull to relieve the pain and tension. It feels soooo wonderful! lol.

    You don't HAVE to see a doctor about it. If ibuprofen and a hot pack on your jaw (close to your ear on whichever side you have pain.. or both sides if you don't know yet) does not relieve your symptoms then you would probably need to see a doctor or dentist at least to find out if something more sinister is going on.

    So take some ibuprofen... maybe start with 200 mg every 6 hours or so and use the hot pack for no more than 15 minutes at a time (it can burn your skin if you leave it on too long). The hot pack can be one that you buy at the store (we have one that we microwave for a minute) or you can run hot tap water over a washcloth and squeeze the excess water out. If 200 mg doesn't cut it, bump it up to 400 mg. But at your age I don't know if going higher than that is a good idea. You'd have to talk to a doctor or dentist about that.

    There are also exercises you can do to keep things loose. I suggest doing an online search of "TMJ" and "bruxism" for more info. :)

    Oh, when my jaw locks up or if I have to open my mouth really wide, I often have to unhinge it kind of like a snake does when they're about to eat something huge. lol. I found that this comparison is pretty common among people with TMJ. Hopefully you won't have this issue. ;)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)