What can cause a sore jaw?

My jaw keeps popping! What is a possible cause?

• Hello folks, Alright, I'm 28 years old and for about the last 11 years I've had an issue with my jaw. I can voluntarily pop my jaw whenever I want and I tell you it can be loud at times; I'll be eating dinner and if everything is quiet you can actually hear the popping. I believe this started to occur while I was in my teens. I used to get in fist fights with fellow classmates and I would do Boxing with my friends. I remember taking a jab to my jaw during a fist fight once and the guy hit me square on the right side of my jaw with a lot of force, and sometime after the fight I then noticed I had the ability to pop my jaw. I didn't think much about it. Well 3 years ago I was boxing and during the final rounds of the fight I started to sustain an eye injury, which in boxing is very typical. After the fight my doctor wanted me to go in for x-rays which they found a broken orbital socket (don't be alarmed it is very, very common in the sport). Here's the thing, the doctor noticed in the x-rays that my jaw was unaligned but he could tell that it was an old injury. They went ahead and raised the right side of my jaw by cutting above my ear and hooking to my jaw directly in front of my ear, pulling it up. I figured that was the issue that I've been having since the days of my youth. Well, apparently not, because my jaw still pops. It doesn't hurt or lock up; it's just loud and annoying! Is this something I should be worried about? Could this one day turn into arthritis? Sorry for the long description; I'm a very detailed individual... I can't help it. "Ali is not the greatest; Lennox Lewis is the greatest! Sorry Ali"!

• Answer:

  Jaw popping means that the disc inside the jaw joint is unstable. The disc pops when it spits forward out of place or backwards into place. This is caused by an abnormally shaped disc and can be so loud that it disturbs other people. You could say that it's a floppy disk! In most cases, jaw pain is nature's way of letting us know that there is something wrong. Fortunately, most patients that have a jaw popping do not have jaw pain and most dentists do not treat the problem unless pain develops. Patients should investigate all of the signs and symptoms of TMJ because they may not be aware of what other difficulties their problem is causing. Many TMJ patients have shortened spastic jaw muscles which increase the pressure inside the jaw joint on the disc. This forces the disc to pop. If the jaw muscles and the patient are healthy, a patient may not have TMJ headaches. If the jaw muscles can be relaxed with a TMJ mouth guard, it often deceases the amount, frequency, and loudness of the pop. However, many patients continue to experience tooth grinding even with treatment. If the jaw popping and clicking continue, the joint could become increasingly damaged. Eventually the patient may experience a jaw locking problem that prevents the jaw from closing back into place. Some patients who are really bothered require special TMJ orthodontics to reposition the jaw into a position that supports the damaged disc. However, the noise continues in as many as 50% of these patients even after orthodontics.