I have been told that my limited mouth opening ie closed lock is most likely due to muscle spasm. I have been locked for 2 months straight, without any unlocking. I have no pain, just some tightness around my jaw/face.
Is it possible to have muscle spasm without pain? I find that hard to believe. If the muscles were so tight to limit my mouth opening to 2cm, surely they would be painful.
I am booked in to do physical therapy on my jaw becuase I have had no help from my dentist. I am also going to try a different dentist who supposedly specialises in TMJ...just wondering if physical therapy can do any harm? I have never been to physiotherapy before, but i have been recommended to go to a dr who specialises in neck/face/jaw physio.
Has everyone has positive effects from physio or at least were not made any worse. I'm kind of worried as sometimes I feel that its best to just leave the jaw alone & not try & do too much esp if you're not in pain...
I doubt a muscle spasm would cause close lock as I tend to consider a spasm as an event or episode much like a cramp or charlie horse, muscle tic or twitch or jerk. But a constricted or atrophied muscle might be the problem - I guess what the dentist is saying is you are stuck with a muscle spasm that did not release? At one point I had closed lock for 3 days and it did feel like I was also clenched shut on the side that would not open - I even had trigger point injections to help relieve it which did not work - but what actually helped relieve it was a bite adjustment - so i guess in a way it was due to an issue with a muscle - not sure it was a spasm per se but the muscle had become so taut or tightened that it would not relax.
Have you had an MRI or tomogram done - you may want to know if your close lock is due to a displaced disc or jaw displacement before you do physiotherapy or have any type of intraoral palpitation or manipulation done -if that should that be part of the therapy - if not, and the focus of the therapy is primarily your neck and facial muscles - it should be OK as it might help other muscles also being affected by the closed lock.
I have had one X ray done. I took that along to the physiotherapy appointment, he said both discs anteriorly displaced, moreso on the right & that the masseter & lateral pterygoid muscle is guarding (sorry about the spelling). So that's why i cant open my mouth.
He suggested against an arthroscopy & thought that physiotherapy would help, but could take months. He said don't expect a quick fix- I definately don't expect that to happen, I'm not sure if I'll ever be back to normal or partially normal. He gave me some stress management exercises & some mild jaw exercises to do on a daily basis. He basically said that we need to work on my posture because i have forward chin posture, he said this affects the jaw muscles. I have to have my back taped to try and correct my posture. He will do further work on my muscles & joint,he said that he can get the disc to go back, but it will be over a period of time.
I have never heard of discs being recaptured as a result of physiotherapy so I do hope it helps as that would save a lot of people from undergoing more tradtional or common splint therapy. Please let us know how you make out with it and your progress during treatment.
Hi I am new here and I am from Sydney Australia. My problem is similar to Violet's in that I have jaw locking and spasms and my neck is so stiff and tight but not much pain.
Some days I don't have so much jaw locking and I can open my mouth wide and other days I can barely open my mouth and the sides of my neck and back of neck are so tight. I have had this problem for 2 years now. I am a clencher not a grinder! My dentist made one of those upper mouth splints which are useless. He referred me to a prosthodentist in a teaching dental hospital. All that guy suggested was moist heat and some jaw exercises to push the jaw back . No x-ray , MRI, nothing told me it was muscular. Anyway, the jaw exercises did not do me any good. I then started some physiotheraphy and did some postural correction and stretches which has helped. But I would like to know of anyone who have got rid of these type of jaw and neck spasms. What kind of splints and what kind of posture corrections tips. And if in Sydney australia, please let me know of any good dentist/physio. Hopefully, someone can assist.
I am referring to my previous post, don't know how this forum works but surprised no one responded. The jaw locking and muscles spasms have eased off and this could be attributed to the physiotheraphy finally addressing the issues.
