Jaw and Cheek Discomfort

T

t man

New member
i am 23 year old female. here is my story.....in mid march i got sick with what i thought was a stomach bug. i would lay around all day. then on march 26 i went to the ER because the right side of my lower jaw swelled up. the ER doctor gave me antibiotics and told me to call my dentist on monday. So i called the dentist and 2 weeks later had a root canal. While the dentist was doing my root canal he told me a couple of other teeth could be causing the swelling but nothing else about the other teeth. after my root canal i was feeling better. But then about 3 weeks later both sides of my lower jaw felt swollen but they didnt look swollen. So i go back to the dentist and he tells me I should get my wisdom teeth removed and gives me more antibiotics. Now one of my lower wisdom tooth is half way gone you can see into my tooth and i dont know if it keeps getting infected or what. But now its June and I am feeling the swelling again on both side of my lower jaw. I go to the oral surgen tomorrow 6/16 for a consultation and will talk to him about this too but I was wondering if this seems to all be happening from my teeth or something else. Also i feel like i have trouble swallowing. I also think I have tmj because i hear clicking/popping when i eat or talk sometimes and I grind and clench my teeth at night. I know this is a long entry but I just wanted to know what anyone else thought or has anyone experienced this themselves? thank you for reading.
 
Hi, it does sound like it is probably coming from your teeth since the dentist gave you antibiotics twice. They do this when there is infection and want to take take of that before working on you. Also, any chewing on the teeth, especially the one that is half gone, will irritate it even more, so if you can, do as little chewing on any of the teeth that the dentist thinks are a problem untill they can get taken care of. And after eating, besides brushing, rinsing with salt water can help with any infection. good luck to you.
 
Hopefully you don't have TMJ disorder! It's basically impossible to fix, even with the best oral surgeon. Grinding your teeth can cause a lot of problems though....sounds like you need a night guard. This will prevent the grinding but you'll still have the tension for a while until you break the habit. The clicking and popping of your jaw doesn't sound like an infection to me. In my experience with doctors is if they don't really know what to do they will give you antibiotics lol. Not saying that you dont have an infection because an exposed pulp/chamber is an invitation for infection.

Also some of the problems could be from incorrect jaw position. An example is someone with a recessed chin (chin and bottom jaw sits too far inward). Obviously I have no clue if this is relevant to you but anything might help! I'm not a doctor though! I'm sure you'll find a lot out tomorrow, good luck
 
Thank you for replying! The oral surgeon I went to yesterday said it is my lower 2 wisdom teeth causing me the problems. Hopefully I will have the 2 teeth out within the next month after I find out how much I have to pay..lol. But he did give me a presciption for a mouthwash to help with irritation and swelling so I will see if that helps. He asked me about my grinding of the teeth and I told him about it but he didnt seem to be really concerned about it. So I decided to get a mouthguard to use at night. Tonight will be the first night I will use it and hopefully that will start to help as well. Again thank you for the replys.
 
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