Keeping your Mouth open

[G.K._Chesterton]

Is it possible to get some sort of..jaw injury if you have to keep your mouth open too long for a procedure? I only ask because after my last round of fillings last year (which had my biggest cavities) it took longer than the rest..about a week or two later my mouth started biting down..kinda crooked and my teeth started knocking into each other.

 

[carole]

I am not a dentist, but it sounds like you need to go back to your dentist and get him to check your bite. It sounds like that is what the problem is not so much the jaw. If your bite is out it makes your jaw ache. Your jaw doesn't usually get injured by keeping your mouth open, but it aches like hell after sometimes.

Your bite being out means that the filling has been filled too much and causes your teeth to hit the filling instead of fitting as it did.

I am sure a dentist will come along and explain it much better than I have, but I would go back to the dentist.

 

[Dr. Daniel]

I am not a dentist, but it sounds like you need to go back to your dentist and get him to check your bite. It sounds like that is what the problem is not so much the jaw. If your bite is out it makes your jaw ache. Your jaw doesn't usually get injured by keeping your mouth open, but it aches like hell after sometimes.

I agree with Carole. After making a filling the form of the tooth changes a bit.
It sounds as if after the last sessions, when several adjacent teeth were filled, and bite has changed in a way that forces the jaw to go to the side (not that the fillings are too high but it forces the lower jaw to go to the side) and it created asymmetrical closure and pressure on the jaw joints.
Ask your dentist to have a look because if this is true, it might create pain in the jaws in the future.

 

[G.K._Chesterton]

Well, what if I told you when I wake up in the morning my bite is spot on for the first hour or two of my day, and then it starts messing up?

 

[threenorns]

i was a monthly patient at the hospital for sick children's dental and orthodontics clinics for 16years - repaired hare lip and cleft palate.

i had to hold my jaw open for so long that eventually, I developed a "lock" technique, where my mouth can stay wide open without effort until I use a finger to push on the inside of the hinge to unlock it.

could very well be you have temporomandibular joint disorder - the connective tissues on one side or the other stretch out or else the muscles on one side of the mandible are stronger than the other. this causes the jaw to maltrack so as you close your mouth, your lower jaw swings off to one side or the other instead of just clamping shut. symptoms include clicking or popping noises when you chew, headache, pain in the ears (often misdiagnosed as an ear infection), and a whole slew of others.

 

[comfortdentist]

have it adjusted don't put up with it