My jaw pops all of the time, and it's been stuck for 3 DAYS! What can I do!!?

Question

My jaw pops alot but the other day it popped and the left side never came back out so now I can't align my teeth together, my back teeth won't touch! and it is very painful! If I try to close my mouth all of the way it hurts really bad. Should I go ahead and try it see if it will pop back into place??? Or is there something I could try to get it to come out naturally? Maybe putting a hot rag on my jaw or something? I have been massaging my jaw and temples but nothing has worked! help me!!

Answer 1

First you need to ice your jaw and if you have ibuprofen take the largest dose that you are allowed and take them as scheduled.  If this doesn't alleviate the pain then you need to head to the emergency room.

Answer 2

Make  an  appointment  with  the  dentist  it  sounds  like  you  have  TMJ .{temporomandibular joint}  It's  not  life  threatening  or  anything   like  that,  it  means  your  jaw  is  out  of  alignment.  The  dentist  will  be  able  to  help  you.

Answer 3

hurry up and go to your orthodontist! If you don't have one ask your dentist. This symptom is called TMJ or TMG. I also currently have this but one side cured and did not pop off the jaw. Your ligaments are what is affecting your jaw. I hope it heals over time for you.

Answer 4

I've had this same problem.  It got so serious I ended up getting lockjaw for 6 months.  What worked for a little bit I would suggest because if you're wanting it to pop back is take a pen or soemthing hard and put in in the back your mouth and bite down and it helped mine unlock for a little bit just to open it real fast to get a peice of food in.  I read that on the internet.  My problem and it could be what yours is is that I grind my teeth at night and that's what messed up my jaw.  I still have popping problems once in a while.  I would suggest not to eat and chewy foods and don't open your mouth to wide and call your dentist.

Answer 5

What you describe sounds like TMJ to me (tempromandibular Joint Disorder) and you need to make an appt. with an Oral Surgeon IMMEDIATELY!!  Do not try to manually dislodge it.  This hits me head on.  I do have it. Or it has me.  Nothing was known about TMJ when I first started to have pain (back in the late 60's -- was accidentally hit on the back of my head by a golf club  in full force of the swing. I had a fractured skull and concussion; but I recovered and it wasn't until some years later (with a marriage falling apart and 3 children to raise alone) that I began to experience PAIN (#10 all the time). I was put into a hospital, all kinds of tests run, then the drs. decided it must be non-organic, originating in some psychiatric disorder -- so I spent a couple of harrowing months in a psychiatric hospital.  I continued on through the next nightmare years (the most precious years of not being able to be there for my 3 beautiful sons, too ill, having to work full time, living on pain pills---then Depression set in, so I was on more meds).  I tried to carry on as best I could, remarried and moved to FLorida (and the pain worsened considerably--LATER  I realized that the tropical weather there contributed to the arthritis that had set up in my left TMJ, I was involved in another divorce (who can live with someone in pain that no one knows what is wrong, cannot get a decent diagnosis.  I can't tell you how many different specialists I saw. At one point I was going around with a shoe box full of drugs, and the other full of vitamins, minerals, herbs.  Seeing a chiropractor, Yoga, also, another stint in a Psychiatric Hospital going through a tortuous medieval Behavior Modification program)  I divorced (my husband didn't believe I was in any REAL pain and so dropped me from his insurance!!)  I was on a disability for about a year; and eventually went back to work -- still in pain, seeing a psychiatrist!  Finally one morning in the Sunday paper, I saw a story about a woman whose description of her   chronic pain lifestyle sounded familiar.  Though I was seeing a chiropractor at the time (3x week, massages) too, I made an  appt. with an oral surgeon, who did a diagnostic xray and delivered the news.  Stunned I was!  I had been trying to live, work and raise a family in l0-10 chronic pain, 24/7.  He explained how no one had a diagnostic procedure until the past couple of years.  Of course I said let's get this done!.  Well, done it was.  (approx. l6 yrs. of my life had been lost to pain at that time.).  I left the hospital after 5 days STILL IN PAIN.   I'd go back to the surgeon (supposed to be the best in DFW area!)  I struggled to maintain a job and use pain meds as a crutch to get through my responsibilities).  Finally in '84 I was back on a Disability.  I went into the county hospital system, as I was out of money and no ins.  I went through their Pain Clinic -- which I hated at first, but then  realized it was a real diamond in the rough.  I was rotated through the Oral Surgery dept. again, neurosurgeons, and anestheologists.  The answers began to flow.  At that time, I had a tumor in the L TMJ -- which req'd surgery.  I also found that  the blow with the golf club had damaged the Major Occipital Nerves at the back left of my head.  (Which is why drs. would PROCLAIM I had Migraines--being one-sided told them that!)  The anestheologists began a series of "Trigger Point Injections" ---they use Marcane (somewhat like Lidocaine or novacaine), it takes longer to take effect but lasts longer.  For the first time in approx. l8 yrs. that I was out of that pain!  I founded a support group for people in Chronic Pain -- this was a time when I saw that when you have a PURPOSE, the Universe will back you to the hilt to see it accomplished!  People called, offering place to meet, just wanting to be able to talk with other people who suffered from ANY KIND OF CHRONIC PAIN.  We had media coverage -- you can't begin to understand what it means to have someone listen to you like you had a brain and weren't just out to get drugs!  I stayed with the group for  almost 5 yrs., then moved.  I was hoping for a brand new start.  Little did I know, until I found myself in another Oral Surgeon's office that the implants first used in the removal of the old TM joints were faulty -- law suits were pending against the makers of these implants.  I knew nothing of that -- l0 yrs. later it now is.  I had stopped going to see Oral Surgeons, drs., as they just kept telling me "you're depressed" or some other off the wall answers.  So, I had yet more surgery to remove the bad implants, new ones in.  I didn't get the full treatment because I lacked the money for it.  SO.  I continued on in pain.  A Hospice dr. I saw put me on some very strong pain meds -- thank God, at the time!  But it was like I was "put to sleep."  And I lost l5 years more of my life.  Finally I went to a nearby internationally known hospital where I had yet 2 more jaw surgeries.  This time they took rib grafts, and I could hardly talk, my mouth had such a small opening.  A few years later, still in pain, on meds, I developed  near fatal pneumonia.  Was in ICU for a month, with a trach tube in my throat -- they couldn't intubate me, or get me on a ventilator as they couldn't get my mouth open (that's why I had the last two surgeries as that Oral Surg. said I  was going to lose my airway!  I let him do the surgery and lost it anyway!  I barely survived that.  For that whole time, I did not drink, did not speak, did not eat, did not get up.  (I've been only a shell of a human body since)  SO.  When I left the hospital after the pneumonia (they didn't tell me they had put a Fentanyl pain patch on me---and here I've been so out of it that I  couldn't remember anything. Wound up having to be airlifted by helicopter to a trauma center, where I stayed for a week, then went to a nursing home.  Finally I returned to my refuge in the countryside.  I lived alone for over 7 yrs. out there.  But, one thing or another kept happening -- I had so many problems with my stomach, they actually put me on Merinol, from cannibas plant) and did tests.  For the next year and a half, in which I fell and broke my ankle--had already broken my shoulder in a fall down some stairs.  Finally., I agreed to move into town.  I had only lived here for approx. 2-3months, when I had a seizure.  Wiped my memory.  (I had SUDDENLY STOPPED ALL MEDS!  Too fast detox can kill you -- I found out.  I had to figure out what was going on with my stomach.  After I was home from the seizure, one day my stomach was so sick (like morning sickness when you are pregnant) &   the idea came, maybe it's the meds I'm taking for pain.  So, after trial and error I discovered that was it.  So, slowly, agonizingly I pulled myself off every medication I was on, which included Morphine, Xanax, just to name a couple.   By this time, I'm into my early 60's.  That was in the summer of '05.  By Thanksgiving of  that year, I had just about sweated out all the drugs and was completely free of them.  For the first time in nearly l6 yrs.  I can't tell you how REBORN I felt.  I thought "hey, maybe I'll get some kind of a nice life after all."  Two days before Christmas of that year, I was out with my oldest son and two youngest grandchildren, walking around in a Nature Preserve--which is my thing.  SOMEHOW, I got too close to the edge of a cliff and fell off of it.  I don't even remember anything of that day.  I had to be lifted up in a basket to a helicopter and taken to a trauma center.  Nearly died again.  WAs back on life support for several days.  Had to have a chest tube put in. I had broken all my ribs,  my back, head injuries.  There are no words to describe how I felt when I woke after about a week and found myself back in a hospital with all those drugs I had so perilously worked to detoxify my body from, were being plunged into me again.  Because of my mixed up memory, nothing made sense.  I knew I was angry.  So angry, that the dr. sent me home as soon as the chest tube came out.  No one would come to the hospital to pick me up---they had released about 5 pm that afternoon and I had no one to call.  So, the nurse (who was stunned that the dr. was discharging me) said she could get me a taxi pass and she brought me my clothes---which of course, were all cut to pieces.  She said, "you must have been a trauma patient".  "yeah"  I said.  (I knew that the drs. were afraid I was going to fall, break a hip, or come down with pneumonia again and die and it would go on the depts statistics (believe me I know the medical system!).  So, I was wheeled down to the lobby and the kindest cab driver helped me into the cab (the nurse had gotten some scrubs from the OR for me to wear home).  I will never forget the feeling of the wind blowing in my face as we rode--he, kindly being quiet, turning off the radio so I could just hold on for  about      a half hours drive, past the desert skies.  What JOY!  By this time, I had such a high tolerance to these drugs that  nothing really stopped the pain; if I was lucky, it took the edge off.  I spent a few nights at my son's house, often just sitting up in a  straight back chair.  Then I came home, to battle my way through withdrawal again---this time with some young girl just starting out.  She knew so little and I knew too much.  We parted and I found a dr. mobile service--they come to me.  (Good thing, because I had to give up my car -- couldn't pay to fix it).  Living in a small apt. house of Seniors of other "disabled"  people like myself, I thought I'd go nuts at first because I had gotten used to the absolute darkness of the country and only the sounds of the coyotes.

   About six weeks    went by  and I was gettin