My face aches

[sarah7]

Hi,
The last maybe week, my face has been aching. In my jaw, my cheekbones, my forehead.. At first I thought it might be sinuses but as its moved down to towards my jaw I've been a little worried about it. It feels like it's literally most of my face, like all of the bones.
I also sometimes clench/grind my teeth in my sleep and I'm not sure if I'm doing that because I'm stressed about how I feel, or if I feel that way because of what I'm doing.
I have an appointment with the doctor next Thursday, but I was just wondering if anyone else has any similar symptoms or knows what it could be?
Thank you,
Sarah

[Joeturner2]

hey,

I have had the same sort of symptoms, my ears are permently blocked which is causing pressure all over my face :(

[smudger]

Hi. I'm no doc but it sounds very much like neuralgia (my mum had it).Pain can be felt inside your mouth, as well as the outside of our face, lower jaw,upper jaw, eyes,cheeks and forehead. I know one of the types of neuralgia is common after shingles cause thats how my Mum got it. Have you had that recently? Its all about nerves and pain signals between the face and your brain.You say you grind your teeth. This won't help. You could try a gum shield? Maybe your dentist might be able to help. See if that helps.The cause of neuralgia generally though isn't usually known. Normal painkillers won't touch it unfortunately so you will need something off the doc if it is that. Hope you can sort it soon. Try n get a cancellation b4 Thurs though, you must be in a lot of pain you poor thing!

[cherrychick]

I had this for a few weeks...I just put it down to jaw clenching and grinding my teeth not only during the night when I'm asleep...but also did it whilst I was awake...not fully aware of how hard I was clamping down on my jaw ...even when relaxed (or so I thought)

It soon passed - I made a concious decision to massage my face evvery evening and meditated on relaxing my facial muscles throughout the day whenever I remembered...