Jaw pain, clicking or a jaw that locks
Most jaw pain comes from the jaw joint and the chewing muscles rather than from a tooth, and most of it settles without surgery. Clicking near the ear, an ache on chewing, stiffness on waking and limited opening are the usual pattern, and clenching or grinding under stress is one of the commonest reasons behind it. A jaw that has locked open and will not close is the one situation that needs seeing the same day.
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Where is my jaw pain coming from?
Put a fingertip just in front of your ear and open your mouth. The movement you feel is the jaw joint, and the muscles that drive it run up into your temple and down across your cheek. When either is overloaded, the result is an ache that often gets blamed on an ear or a tooth.
Joint and muscle origin usually looks like this: a dull ache in front of the ear or across the cheek, temple or side of the head; worse on chewing; stiffness on waking; clicking, popping or grating as you open; and opening that feels narrower or catches on the way. Pain in front of the ear that ear treatment has not helped is a classic presentation.
Tooth origin behaves differently. More often sharp than dull, traceable to one particular tooth, provoked by cold, sweet things or biting on that tooth specifically, and it can throb enough to wake you.
Clenching and grinding sit behind a large share of both. Grinding at night and daytime clenching load the joint and muscles for hours without you noticing, which is why the pain is frequently worst on waking and why tooth surfaces can look flattened. This is extremely common and rises with stress.
How the small cartilage disc inside the joint produces the click, and the full treatment pathway, are on our TMJ disorders page. The short version worth knowing now: most of it improves with conservative care.
What should I do tonight?
If your jaw is locked, the pain is severe, or the jaw was injured, get seen rather than self-treating. For ordinary jaw ache and clicking, the following is safe and often helps within a few days.
Do this
✓ Soft food, cut small, for a few days. Give the joint less work rather than testing what it can manage.
✓ Warm, not hot, compress. Over the joint and across the cheek and temple muscles, 10 to 15 minutes, two or three times a day. Most of the ache is muscle, and muscle responds to warmth.
✓ Support your chin when you yawn and keep openings small. A wide yawn is a common trigger for a joint already irritated.
✓ Let your teeth rest apart. Through the day they should touch only when chewing or swallowing. A phone reminder a few times a day to notice and release the jaw works better than it sounds.
✓ Gentle, small opening and closing within a comfortable range, kept straight rather than deviating to one side.
✓ Paracetamol as directed on the pack if it is safe for you. Check with a pharmacist or doctor first if you have other conditions, are pregnant, or take other medicines.
Avoid this
✗ No chewing gum, ice, hard nuts or betel nut. Sustained chewing is the biggest load you can put on an irritated joint.
✗ Do not force a stuck jaw open or shut. Forcing tends to deepen the muscle spasm.
✗ Stop testing the click. Repeatedly opening to check whether it is still there loads the joint dozens of extra times a day.
✗ Do not buy a night guard online. A guard that does not match your bite can change how your teeth meet and load the joint in an unhelpful direction. The fitting and adjustments are most of what makes a guard work.
✗ Do not sleep face down with the jaw pressed into the pillow, and stop resting your chin on your hand at a desk.
✗ Do not keep taking painkillers for weeks. They mask the signal without reducing the load causing it.
What else could jaw pain be?
The joint and chewing muscles account for most of it. Several other things present as jaw pain, and they matter because the treatment is entirely different.
- A tooth, especially a back tooth. Deep decay, a cracked tooth or an abscess in a lower molar can refer pain along the jaw and up towards the ear. Sharp pain on biting one specific tooth, or pain with cold, points here. See root canal treatment or broken tooth.
- A wisdom tooth. A partly erupted or impacted wisdom tooth causes pain at the back of the jaw, often with a swollen gum flap and difficulty opening. Very common in the twenties and thirties, and covered on our wisdom tooth pain page.
- Spreading dental infection. Pain with facial swelling, fever, a foul taste or difficulty opening means infection rather than joint strain, and needs seeing the same day. See our emergency page.
- Ear and sinus problems. The joint sits directly against the ear canal, so ear infections and jaw joint problems are regularly mistaken for one another in both directions.
- Neck and posture. Neck tension and a head held far forward at a screen refer pain into the jaw and temple more often than people expect.
- Past injury to the face or jaw. A blow to the chin, even months earlier, can leave a joint that clicks or aches. Any recent injury, a changed bite, or numbness after trauma needs assessing, see facial trauma and jaw fractures.
- Arthritis and joint surface change. Less commonly, wear or inflammatory arthritis affects the joint surfaces. Grating rather than clicking is a clue.
- Salivary gland problems. A gland blocked by a stone can swell and ache under the jaw, worse at mealtimes. A firm lump or persistent swelling of the jaw needs imaging, see jaw cysts and tumours.
- Heart-related pain, rarely but importantly. Jaw or lower-face pain can occasionally be a symptom of a heart problem, particularly with chest discomfort, breathlessness, sweating, nausea, or pain spreading to the arm, shoulder or neck. That combination is a medical emergency; call emergency services rather than a dental clinic.
When should I get it looked at?
Jaw ache that has not improved after two or three weeks of rest, warmth and habit change is worth examining rather than continuing to guess at. Painless clicking with full opening, on its own, generally is not.
Worth an examination if…
✓ Clicking or grating comes together with pain
✓ Your mouth will not open as wide as it used to, or catches on the way
✓ Chewing normal food tires or hurts the jaw
✓ You wake most mornings with a stiff, aching jaw or temples
✓ There is pain in front of the ear that ear treatment has not helped
✓ Someone has told you that you grind at night, or your teeth look flattened
✓ Two or three weeks of soft food, warmth and jaw rest has changed nothing
Same day, do not wait, if…
⚠ Your jaw has locked open and will not close, or you cannot bring your teeth together
⚠ Your jaw suddenly will not open more than a very small amount
⚠ There is facial swelling, fever or pus with the pain, see our emergency page
⚠ The jaw was injured, your bite feels different afterwards, or the lip or chin is numb
⚠ There is chest pain, breathlessness or pain spreading to the arm alongside the jaw pain, this needs emergency medical care, not dental care
If the jaw is locked
Do not force it and do not keep testing it. Support the jaw, use a warm compress, and call us: 0184-407 3774. Outside clinic hours (Mon-Sat 10 AM-2 PM & 5 PM-8 PM), go to a hospital emergency department. A locked jaw is easier to manage the sooner it is dealt with.
What happens at the appointment?
Separating joint pain from tooth pain first
The examination starts by working out which of the two you have, because that decides everything else. Individual teeth are tested and the joint and muscles are examined, and it is not unusual to find both contributing. X-rays are taken where a tooth or the bone needs confirming.
Measuring the joint and finding the tender points
How wide you can open is measured, joint movement and sounds are checked on both sides, and the muscles of the jaw, temple and neck are pressed to locate sore spots. Your bite is looked at, along with any flattening of the teeth that would indicate grinding.
Treating the cause, starting with the least invasive option
If it is a tooth, the tooth is treated. If it is the joint and muscles, treatment begins conservatively: jaw rest, warm compresses, a night guard made to your bite where grinding is loading the joint, gentle exercises, and habits to change. The full pathway, including the rare situations that need surgery, is on our TMJ disorders page.
Review, with honest expectations
You are seen again to check what is working, and guards and exercises are adjusted. Improvement tends to be uneven, better for a week then a bad day then better again, and that pattern is normal rather than a sign of failure. Where a jaw problem needs a surgeon's involvement, that sits with advanced surgical care here rather than being referred elsewhere.
The honest answers
"A click means my jaw is damaged"
Not on its own. A jaw that clicks without pain and opens fully is not a joint that needs fixing, and treating it can create problems that were not there. What earns attention is pain, locking, catching, or reduced opening.
"I was told nothing is wrong with my jaw"
People with jaw joint pain are often sent away, or given ear drops that do not help, because the joint was never actually examined. There usually is something to find, and it is found by measuring opening and pressing the muscles rather than by an X-ray alone.
What we will not promise
That the clicking goes silent. And we will not offer an irreversible procedure on a joint that would settle with a guard and habit change. The realistic goal is comfortable, full jaw function without pain. Habit change is the slowest part and the part that matters most.
Jaw pain questions, answered straight
My jaw clicks but it does not hurt. Is that a problem?
Is my jaw pain coming from a tooth or from the joint?
What can I do for jaw pain tonight?
My jaw has locked and I cannot close my mouth. What should I do?
Can stress really cause jaw pain?
Does jaw pain mean I will need surgery?
Find out whether it is the joint or a tooth
Describe what your jaw does: the clicking, the locking, the morning ache, how wide you can open. One examination separates joint and muscle pain from tooth pain and gives you a plan that starts with the least invasive option that can work.
We reply within 15 minutes during clinic hours.