Jaw pain

Hi there :)

Since November I have suffered with constant jaw pain (4 months)

I visited my GP who suggested I visited my dentist. He couldn't find anything wrong with my teeth/ mouth at all. But prescribed me diazepam to relax my jaw muscles and made me a mouth guard to stop me "clenching" at night which i wasn't aware i did.

However despite all this the pain continued. I went back to my doctor and she said "it's stress - take paracetamol" This didn't help much either.

So I have been "putting up with it" but 2 weeks ago I had reason to visit my GP on a separate matter (skin condition) and she prescribed me antibiotics - Flucloxacillin 250mg, 4 times a day for 2 weeks.

About a week after taking these my jaw pain just went! Completely! Is it possible i had an infection somehow in my jaw bone that the antibiotics cured? I am asking because i feel so much better without this horrible pain but don't want to feel too happy about it in case it comes back!

Thanks
Clairey

Bruxism (teeth grinding) is a common feature of many patients with anxiety and can not only damage the enamel and alignment of the teeth, it can also be the source of a great deal of pain at the masseter muscles from fatigue. It can either exist as chronic or episodic pain and is sometimes accompanied by mouth-breathing at night which often results in something known as geographic tongue, wherein the tongue appears to have white or scarred patches in various places that usually dissipates over the course of each day.

Infection of the bone is a little more uncommon and the associated pain can be quite excrutiating. While it's remotely possible, the more likely case would have been an infection at the tooth bed or terminal nerve. Although more suspect, I would have been surprised that your dentist would not have been able to observe this to be the case. It could also be coincidental that you've been prescribed medication at a point when the pain simply self-resolved from either bruxism or similar insult.

In any case, sounds as though your fine. I wouldn't be concerned at all regarding a bone infection or other serious issue. It doesn't appear to have been the case.

Thanks RLR for putting my mind at rest - it's very possible that i stopped clenching as much at night as I am soooo much better (anxiety wise) these days. It was just so sudden i suppose I put it down to the antibiotics because I couldn't see how I stopped clenching at night "just like that"

Anxiety has had a lot to answer for!!!

Thanks for your reply!
Clairey

Hi Clarey!
I sympathise with you comletely! I clench my teeth at night, I know when I have had a bad night because my jaw is really painful the next day and I have a really 'clicky jaw'. As you know, it is anxiety and stress related. I find that if I have had a bad day it helps to light a fewscented candles and listen to relaxing music before I go to sleep to try and remove the stress before I go to sleep.

Hope it stays away for you!

Charlotte