Jaw hyperextension?!


Question: For the past few months, everytime I open my mouth past a certain point, the left side of my jaw will crack. There's never any pain but It always cracks and i'm concerned about developing pain when I'm older. My dentist believes I'm hyperextending my jaw. It makes enough sense to me except I can't understand why this has only just started recently and i've been fine for the rest of my life. Any thoughts and any suggestions on what might help?


Answers: For the past few months, everytime I open my mouth past a certain point, the left side of my jaw will crack. There's never any pain but It always cracks and i'm concerned about developing pain when I'm older. My dentist believes I'm hyperextending my jaw. It makes enough sense to me except I can't understand why this has only just started recently and i've been fine for the rest of my life. Any thoughts and any suggestions on what might help?

Hi, I am a dentist. I don't believe it is hyperextension of the jaw, that would be very painful. Do you know if you grind your teeth at night or clench them during the day? What is happening is dislocation of the articular disc in your temporal mandibular joint TMJ. What you have is called a sign, meaning the popping, signs do not always become symptomatic. They can if you grind or clench, but the disc popping is normal, when you open your jaw put one hand up right in front of each ear and open and close. Move you hand until you find the joint. You will notice your jaw will rotate then when you open wider you feel it bulge and then slide. This is movement from rotation to translation and is normal. See if your jaw cracks right at the point when you feel the bulge, if so this is your articular disc dislocating and then popping back into place when you close. There really is no treatment needed if no pain. If you grind or clench then get your dentist to make you a night guard. If the popping and clicking bother you then you can go to an oral surgeon for an evaluation. They usually don't treat unless painful. they sometimes cut a small slit by the joint and then flush it out with saline, which does help some people.





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