Tightness in the jaw muscles or joint is common. Stress, anxiety, injury, and inflammation can contribute to muscle tension and pain. Having a tight jaw may interfere with a person's ability to eat or speak. Choosing soft foods, performing jaw exercises, and wearing a mouthguard can help loosen a tight jaw.
Facial tension is a common response to stress and can also be linked to a TMJ-related problem. If you feel stressed, you might experience tension in various parts of your body, such as the face, neck, and shoulders. This tension is a completely natural — and common — response to stress.
A tight jaw can result from stress, anxiety, inflammation, or injury. Overexerting the jaw — by chewing too much, for example — can also cause muscle tightness. The joint of the jaw, also called the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), is a ball-and-socket joint similar to that in the shoulder.
Anxiety can cause facial numbness and a tingling sensation. These symptoms of anxiety may trigger fears of a serious medical problem, such as a stroke or head injury. Many different conditions can cause numbness, but tingling and numbness are among the most common anxiety symptoms, especially during a panic attack .
You should talk to a healthcare provider if you have jaw pain that lasts more than a week. Severe jaw pain from a broken or dislocated jaw is a medical emergency. Likewise, severe pain that starts in your chest and your shoulders and moves to your jaw may be a heart attack symptom.
What causes bruxism? Oral health specialists often point to too much stress and certain personality types as causes of bruxism. Bruxism often affects people with nervous tension, such as anger, pain, or frustration. It also affects people with aggressive, hurried, or overly competitive tendencies.
Having TMJ problems can make you feel stressed, out of sorts, and anxious, which can lead to experiencing these symptoms. If your anxiety is making you clench your jaw or grind your teeth, you may inadvertently be worsening the TMJ symptoms, at the same time as you wear down your teeth.
Tension headaches occur when neck and scalp muscles become tense or contract. The muscle contractions can be a response to stress, depression, head injury, or anxiety. They may occur at any age, but are most common in adults and older teens. It is slightly more common in women and tends to run in families.
Anxiety and muscle tension often go hand in hand. Tense muscles in the face, jaw, neck, shoulders, and upper back are often found in people who are stressed or anxious. Tension in this area can lead to neck pain.
Anxiety muscle tension symptoms can appear for a few brief moments then disappear, can last for minutes or hours before they relax, or can be stiff, tense, or painful persistently. Anxiety muscle tension symptoms can also persist when trying to relax, go to sleep, when asleep, or resume when waking up.
A TMJ-associated mood disorder is not uncommon; physical progress is easier when you overcome anxiety. Many people dealing with TMJ find that it's a chronic pain issue. Any time that a person experiences ongoing chronic pain it is possible to have depression and or mental health problems develop.
Bruxism can be associated with some mental health and medical disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, dementia, gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD), epilepsy, night terrors, sleep-related disorders such as sleep apnea, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Over time, this can damage your teeth and lead to jaw problems. It can cause teeth to crack, loosen, and even fall out. Teeth grinding and clenching—also called bruxism—can cause serious issues if left untreated. And people aren't always aware that they're doing it.
Dehydration decreases the effectiveness of the body's natural joint lubrication, which aggravates the joint and can lead to a TMJ flare-up. Avoiding caffeine, drinking plenty of water and eating foods with a high-water content (e.g., cucumbers, cantaloupe, tomatoes, etc.,) can help an individual remain well hydrated.
Other Causes of Jaw and Facial Pain: Certain other conditions including facial trauma, an abscessed tooth, or herpes zoster (shingles) can also cause pain similar to symptoms of TMJ disorder.
A person having a heart attack may feel short of breath. Therefore, if they are experiencing jaw pain in combination with shortness of breath, it is reasonable to suspect a heart attack.
Breathing exercises - along with exercises to relieve the physical stress of your facial muscles, adopting a habit of some stress-reducing deep breathing sessions can help lower blood pressure and promote emotional calm.
The most common cause of facial tingling is anxiety or a panic attack. However, irritation or damage to the nerves in the face cause facial tingling along with numbness or weakness. If the facial tingling is due to mild anxiety, it may be manageable at home with lifestyle modifications.
Anxiety can cause what's called “Paresthesia,” or the pins and needles feeling that many experience when a limb falls asleep. The exact mechanism for this pins and needles feeling with anxiety is not entirely clear.