My jaw won't open all the way in the morning, and has been stuck for a day !

You have a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) problem and the reason why you cannot open fully in the mornings is because during the night a structure called the articular disk, which is part of the TM joint (where your lower jaw hinges to your skull in front of the ear) has become dislocated. One of the functions of the articular disk is to enable the mouth to open fully (normal opening is 48-52mm) and when the disk gets forced out of place when your teeth are together, it acts like a doorstop to prevent your mouth from opening more than 3 fingers wide. The clicking and popping you hear is the sound the disk makes when it gets dislocated and goes back into place and is called reciprocal clicking. Reciprocal clicking is actually a good thing when someone has TMJ because that means the disk is able to go back into place and this makes treatment much easier. It's when the noises stop and you are unable to open more than 3 fingers wide that makes treatment extremely difficult. No noise means that the disk is unable to go back into place and this is called a closed lock without reduction. You need to find a dentist who knows how to treat TMJ (aka TMD) to determine why your disk is getting forced out of place while you are asleep. Your may have a primary TMJ disorder (aka internal derangement) and the most common causes are deep overbites, bad bites, Class II jaws (retruded chins), a history of trauma to the head, and traditional orthodontic treatment involving bicuspid extractions. There is also a condition called secondary TMJ which means that you have a normal TMJ to begin with but some external factor like clenching and grinding pushes the TMJ from a normal state to a pathologic state. This condition is temporary and the jaw will go back to its original normal state after the external factor is eliminated. Primary TMJ, however, needs some sort of permanent intervention to fix it (changes to the bite, teeth, jaw position, etc). TMJ always gets worse over time and never goes away but some people can live with it and others cannot. You will find that your condition will get worse as time pasts; either your jaws will lock out more frequently and/or it will become harder and harder to get the disk back into place to allow your mouth to open wide normally. If you decide to do something about it, it would be in your best interest not to see an oral surgeon or a traditional orthodontist, trust me. A dentist or orthodontist who knows functional orthodontic technique would be the best professional to diagnose and fix your problem. BTW, the younger you are when you have TMJ treated, the higher the success rate. As treatment is delayed, more damage is done to the TMJ (wear and tear, stretching of the ligaments that hold the joint together, etc).

functional orthodontist; treated TMJ since 1984

I have the right answer for you you need to see your dentist you are having whats called TMJ disorder when the jaw locks and has pooping noise and hurts at times You need to see A Jaw Specialist TMJ speicalist which also a jaw specialist i bet it is annoying I would not doubt it and I hope your situation gets figured out soon as possible but if your having trouble with jaw then you need to see a Jaw speiclist and then from there they will tell you what your options are they will do some tests to discover what the problem is you could have a misalined jaw issue i have told alot of people about this problem Good make sure you see jaw specialist right away