Jaw Pain

I’m not going to bore you with all the anatomy of the face and jaw, but here are some key structures that are useful to know:

• The jaw joint (called the temporal mandibular joint or TMJ).  This is the part that can click, pop and lock on some people.
• The powerhouse muscle known as your masseter.  This sits outside the mouth along your jaw bone.  You’ll feel this pop out when you clench your teeth, because that’s its key job when chewing.  If you clench your jaw regularly, this is the guy that will need some attention and is frequently associated with chronic headaches.
• Little muscles just inside your mouth called you pterygoids.  These deviate your jaw from one side to the other and get very unhappy on people who grind their teeth.  If you’re not sure if you do, ask your partner…apparently it’s very loud at night! 

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