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Question: Ear, Jaw and facial pain
| Kacheri
- Fri Apr 06, 2007 3:33 am |
I'm a 35 obese woman with Diabetes-II. I had one of my wisdom teeth pulled a month ago after several months of treating it myself ( No Insurance). I used amoxicillian and all the at home treatments. 3 weeks after I had it cut out I started to experiance pain from my lower ear down to my bottom jaw. I went to my dentist and he said that it was a muscle ache. It has been two weeks after that and I am experiancing pain in my ears, jaw, teeth and face. Everytime there is cold air it hurts so bad and I have taken alieve wich usually takes care of my knee Arthritis but it just doesn't cut my facial pain. Now here is the strange part, the pain activates when I lie down to sleep. When I am up it still hurts but not nearly as much when I lie down. I thought it was TMJ so I bought a night guard and that only made things worse and I don't grind or clench my teeth that I know of. So my question is besides the obvious, What's going on?, is there such a thing as jaw and ear Arthritis??? It sounds silly to me but that's the pain I would describe it as. A very sharp ache. I feel like I have a an ear ache in both ears and all my bottom teeth ache.
I don't see my doctor until May and I would really like to know what I can do for myself and what this could be.
Thank You,
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| Dr. Chan Lowe
- Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:00 am |
 The nerve that supplies the teeth is also connected (in a round about way) to the ear and jaw. It is likely that your pain is in your jaw related to your teeth and is thus also causing some ear pain.
There are a few possible reasons for this. It may be still related to your wisdom teeth surgery. It may also be an indication of an underlying infection in the area. It would be relatively rare to actually damage the nerve since it basically runs inside the bone of the jaw.
Follow up with your doctor is important. If your pain worsens you should request to be seen sooner. Also, if you can get in sooner it may mean the pain can be treated sooner. In the mean time, antiinflammatories such as Ibuprofen are likely to help the most.
Best wishes.
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