Jaw pain depending on the location

Jaw pains often manifest themselves with colds, when one is under stress or e.g. also after alcohol consumption. They also sometimes only become apparent when chewing or when grinding your teeth. Dental procedures can also cause subsequent pain, for example after an injection, wisdom tooth surgery or root canal treatment.

In the case of a cold, the maxillary sinuses are often also affected, i.e. the mucous membranes there are inflamed, i.e. infected with bacteria. Pain in the area of the jaws due to a cold is often related to the close proximity of the maxillary sinus floor to the root tips of the teeth in the posterior region.

If an infection is present there (sinusitis), the path of the bacteria is very short and the nerve supplying the upper jaw (N. maxillaris) is temporarily irritated. As the cold subsides, the symptoms usually subside. Therefore, it is possible to have pain in the jaw when you have a cold.

This might also be of interest to you: Sinusitis and toothache If you feel pain in your jaw when chewing normally, there are several possible causes. The simplest cause is a hard particle, such as a cherry stone, which you bite on. The affected teeth, which are not completely rigidly attached to the jawbone, but are suspended by fibers (Sharpey fibers), are pressed down to the bottom of the alveolus (bone cavity of the tooth), which causes a compression (squeezing) of the nerve entering the tooth there.

This forces the mouth to open up like a reflex. The situation is similar after a visit to the dentist, when a tooth has received a new filling, partial crown or crown, for example. If the height of the tooth is not exactly right, the tooth can hurt so badly when biting that you can even feel the pain in your jaw.

Often fillings are placed under a local anesthesia (syringe), so the numb feeling does not allow a correct feedback regarding the correct filling height. Although the dentist has the possibility to check the height by means of a colored so-called occlusion foil, the long lying and mouth-open holding often falsifies the normal position of the teeth rows to each other. Another possibility to feel pain while chewing can be found in the temporomandibular joint.

Between the parts of the upper and lower jaw, which form the temporomandibular joint, there is a cartilage disc that supports the movement process under normal function. However, if the distance between the upper and lower jaw is too small, compression occurs here as well, resulting in a permanent deformation (compression and permanent deformation) so that the movement process causes pain. Causes for too small a distance can be, for example, fillings that are too low, chewed down prosthesis teeth or chipped teeth.

Pain in the jaw area due to teeth grinding can be felt on the teeth as well as in the jawbone or jaw joint. The pain in the teeth can be caused by the overloading and rotational movement (torsion) that occurs when teeth are grinded. Microcracks occur both in the outer shell of the tooth (tooth enamel) and at the transition between tooth enamel and root cement (layer on the surface of the root).

Tiny portions of the enamel prisms involved in the outer tooth structure are almost “blown out” by the improper loading. These, in turn, cause parts of the teeth that are connected to nerve fibers to react to this circumstance. Prolonged tooth grinding may also have led to a loss of height and thus to a lowering of the bite position, resulting in pain in the temporomandibular joint.

Pain in the jaw is often simply caused by stress. Most patients do not even notice that they constantly grind their teeth or press their teeth firmly together, even when they do so during the day. This behavior is called bruxism.

A tense posture, in which the muscles do not return to a relaxed position by themselves, can also be an expression of stress. During physical activity, one literally often clenches one’s teeth, even unconsciously. Tension in the jaw muscles is mainly caused by misalignment of the jaws in relation to each other.Causes can be unilateral or bilateral incorrect loading due to missing teeth (i.e.

gaps between teeth) and resulting elongated, i.e. extended teeth (unhindered length growth), damage to the temporomandibular joint, poor working posture (e.g. sitting bent over at the computer) or accidental damage, which no longer allows the muscles to relax due to scarring of the musculature. In addition to physiotherapy, physiotherapy (including osteopathy) or muscle relaxants (medication for chemical muscle loosening), relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, yoga or Pilates can also lead to relaxation and end or prevent jaw pain from developing in the first place.

Pain in the jaw area after alcohol consumption usually likes to report the teeth that are already pre-damaged and show a beginning or occurred inflammatory reaction. When alcohol is consumed, the blood vessels inside the tooth pulp (nerve) dilate and you can literally feel your own pulse. The consumption of alcohol after surgical interventions has proven to be extremely bad.

Again, the mechanism of dilation of the blood vessels plays a decisive role. The already closed blood vessels cannot withstand the pressure and open up again, resulting in post-operative bleeding with corresponding pain. This can even lead to the puncturing (surgical method for vessel closure) of the vessel if a pressure bandage is no longer sufficient.

Carious defects that are not treated for a longer period of time cause strong stabbing and/or throbbing pain after a while. This jaw pain is a warning signal. The affected patient should urgently consult a dentist and promptly initiate appropriate treatment.

Deep carious defects, which have already penetrated the hard tooth substance and opened the medullary cavity, can damage the nerve fibres and cause the tooth to die. In these cases, the jaw pain that occurs can usually only be relieved by a so-called root canal treatment. In the course of this therapeutic measure, the pulp of the tooth, including the nerve fibers stored in it, is completely removed and the root cavity is subsequently closed by an artificial filling material.

However, jaw pain can also reoccur after a root canal treatment. There can be various causes for this phenomenon. Patients who suffer from jaw pain with the same localization after a completed root canal treatment should visit a dentist as soon as possible.

A radiographic examination of the affected tooth can quickly provide information about what measures need to be taken and whether the tooth can still be preserved at all. In everyday clinical practice, it has been shown that pain after root canal treatment is usually not a good starting point for tooth preservation. On the one hand, the reoccurrence of jaw pain after root canal treatment could be due to the fact that the root canal was not completely cleared out during the first treatment attempt and therefore bacteria are still present in the root canal system.

Especially for patients with very narrow or crooked root canals, the implementation of a root canal treatment is very complicated. On the other hand, jaw pain after root canal treatment can be an indication of the development of a cyst in the area of the root tip. Even before an operation, erupting wisdom teeth cause the patient great problems.

The wisdom teeth are a rudiment from the prehistoric times, when humans had to chew their food much more. Nowadays they are no longer needed. However, in every second person there is not enough space for the 8’s, so that pain in the jaws occurs when they break through.

If the teeth remain in the jaw, they usually do not cause any problems, only the breaking through brings the suffering. If they only break through partially, they are an easy target for bacteria, which can also migrate into the jaw and cause pain. Jaw pain after wisdom tooth surgery is not uncommon and is part of the normal healing process, like a thick cheek, bruises and problems with swallowing.

They are caused by the procedure, which takes place under anesthesia. Usually the wisdom teeth are very deep and wedged in the bone, so the bone is affected during the procedure and has to withstand great stress. As a side effect after the operation, jaw pains occur, but these should improve over time.

Nerve endings are exposed and the tissue fluid needed for healing can also cause the pain.However, if these do not improve, it is strongly recommended that you consult your treating physician again, as alveolitis sicca may have developed, causing further jaw pain. In the case of sicca alveolitis, the empty tooth socket becomes inflamed by bacteria, as the protective blood glaucoma may or may not have decayed. An injection can be used during dental treatments to relieve the pain and make the procedure as tolerable as possible.

Usually, this jaw pain occurs with a restricted mouth opening. This is also called a jaw clamp. The reason for this is that a blood vessel may have been injected with the needle, or it may have been damaged or it may have bled into the tissue. The injury to the blood vessel can lead to a bruise. However, this type of jaw pain disappears on its own after a certain time.