This pain in my jaw

[KidViciou$]

owwwwww :|

for almost a week now, i ahve been having a pain in my left jaw whenever i open my mouth, chew, yawn...

i used ot have braces, and wore my retainer for at least 6 months after they were taken off, but not more than a year i dont think.

i went ot the dentist in the beginning of the summer when i started having the pains, and he tried to say it was because i didnt wear my retainer long enough. i say he was full of BS

i think i might have my wisdom teeth coming in. can anyone tell me what it is? thanks

 

[vi edit]

Sounds like a wisdom tooth to me. You somewhere between the ages of 16 and 20?

 

[KurtDavidson]

It seems that everyone in their late teens and early 20's have been urged by their dentist to have their wisdom teeth removed. Some of the rumors about wisdom teeth are true ..... many of the rumors are not.

Wisdom teeth appear as the last tooth in the mouth and begin to erupt around the age of 16 years. This has been called the age of wisdom although that parallelism would be questioned by many. Depending on the reference source, up to 90% of the population does not have enough room for wisdom teeth to erupt into a position which is accessible for good hygiene.

A commonly asked question is, "Why do we have wisdom teeth if there is no room in the jaws for them?". The answer has to do with diet. According to the British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, in a article entitled, Management of Asymptomatic Impacted Wisdom Teeth, Vol. 34 October 1996, the author notes that in Neolithic man the average, highly abrasive diet caused attrition of the teeth resulting in a reduction in the size of the molars from front to back. This decrease in size from the abrasive nature of the food ingested allowed for the forward migration of the teeth and adequate space for the eruption of the wisdom teeth. With the arrival of processed foods and a reduction in the amount of chewing necessary to reduce the food for swallowing, less wear occurs. This coupled with a decrease in the loss of teeth as a result of a decrease in cavities, requires modern generations to address impacted and partially impacted wisdom teeth.

When the wisdom tooth cannot be cleaned, infection results. It is the potential for infection and the potential for this infection to spread to other teeth that usually motivates the patient to have the wisdom teeth removed. Other commonly sited justifications for the removal of wisdom teeth like the potential for them to cause cysts, tumors, or cancer or the potential for them to cause crowding and shifting of the other teeth in the mouth are highly suspect. Although many believe that wisdom teeth cause crowding, this has never been definitively proven in any well controlled scientific study. Additionally, the potential for them to cause cysts or tumors is very, very low. Although removing a wisdom tooth can weaken the jaw for a short period of time post-operatively, leaving a wisdom tooth in does not cause the jaw in the area to be inherently weak. As mentioned before, cancer occurring in wisdom teeth is a rare phenomenon.

 

[KidViciou$]

im 17.

thanks for that info, but i dont trust the british about oral hygene

just kidding, im afraid about getting them removed though

 

[shopbruin]

nah you don't have to be too scared about getting them removed. although when i got mine removed, they did a good job of scaring me with the possible "after effects." of course i've forgotten them all so i have no idea what could happen since mine was rather successful. I was knocked out with both general and local anasthesia... i swear... i felt the needle prick my arm and i was out.

i had very little pain afterwards. i was one of the few lucky ones. but i developed a nasty case of bronchitis afterwards. you try to cough and recover from oral surgery at the same time. :|

 

[Viper GTS]

I had one of mine pulled on Friday. It had gotten infected, so after the infection was nearly gone the used local & yanked it. The removal process is not fun if you're awake. You'll feel no pain, but the popping, cracking, drilling, & blood being suctioned away are enough to make you want general anaesthetic, & want it bad.

Once it's over, though, it's relatively smooth sailing. I went back to work two days after getting it pulled. Dry socket isn't fun, I stayed home from work today because of it. It hurt bad enought that three Tylenol wouldn't make it go away, but two of the prescription pain killer did. Went back to the surgeon, & he packed the socket with medicated gauze. The pain is pretty much gone. I'm going back to work tomorrow.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, especially if they pull them all out & use general anaesthetic. General is nice, you watch the needle go in your arm, & then everything goes black. You wake up with a sore mouth, but that's about it. And they'll give you nice drugs to take care of that.

Good luck... And have fun, I've had oral surgery 4 times now & the nurses are generally pretty cute...



Viper GTS

 

[Balt]

This may not necessarily be because of wisdom teeth. I used to have all sorts of problems with my jaw hurting. Every time I would open my mouth past a certain point I would hear this loud *POP* (and occasionally a crunch ). Then I went to a different dentist and he said one of my teeth was preventing me from biting down on all sides at the same time. Apparently this can be a big cause of jaw trouble.

So he grinded the tooth down a bit, and no more troubles.

But go ahead and get those suckers (the wisdom teeth) removed before they wrap around a nerve. You do NOT want that kind of complication.

 

[FiddleDD]

I had my wisdom teeth pulled at the same time I had teething babies, and I figured out why they are called wisdom teeth...I guess they could be called sympathy teeth just the same.

 

[MooCow]

I guess I can say I'm lucky, I've only got 3 wisdom teeth coming in! kinda freaky, but hey if I have to get them removed, the less the merrier

 

[KidViciou$]

does it matter that they arent otu of the gum yet?

 

[Viper GTS]

Mine was under the gum, they'll just cut the tissue back, pull the toth, & stitch the tissue back over the empty socket.

Viper GTS

 

[KidViciou$]

time to scheduke an appointment

 

[KidViciou$]

my mom gave me an ibueprofen, and it doesnt hurt as much

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Could be a sign of TMJ (Temporal Mandibular Joint) problems.

Often this is caused by unequal forces on both sides, so as Dalt noted, your bite pattern can be a cause of it and adjusted (a "spotting paper" is used to find the places where your teeth hit hardest when you bite, then these high spots are ground down) to equalized the forces.

TMJ problems can also be caused by the trauma experienced when they do oral surgery, tonsilectomies, etc. Ever see the spreaders they used for the mouth? Can pop the joint ...

 

[Eeks]

Wisdom teeth =( And it's painful as hell afterward. =(

 

[KidViciou$]

sometimes when i chew, very rarely i pop my jaw, and i hear a clicking noise for the next few days. VERY irritating

think it was when they put braces on my teeth? that tool used to stretch my mouth?

 

[Balt]

You really should get that checked. Like it has been mentioned above, it might be as simple as the dentist just grinding the teeth a little. Trust me, it is a LOT nicer not having those jaw problems anymore.

I'm not sure if braces would cause it or not, but it seems likely that the teeth moving around might have made your bite change and therefore made it a bit uneven.