Face and Neck Pain Detroit

If you experience face pain related to your TMJ, it usually comes from one of three sources:

Muscle pain is one of the most common TMJ symptoms and can often be felt in areas beyond the jaw itself. Although this discomfort originates in the muscles that control jaw movement, it may be perceived as facial pain because the chewing muscles attach behind and above the eyes, in the cheeks, and around the nose. As a result, many people experiencing TMJ symptoms describe the sensation as face pain rather than jaw pain.

Other times, your face pain may be related to pinched or pressured nerves. This could lead to aching, dull pain, or sharp, electric pains. You might also experience tingling and numbness in the affected areas.

Other times, you might be experiencing referred pain that is actually being caused elsewhere but is being felt as facial pain. The most common referred pain that is confused with face pain is dental pain. If TMJ is causing significant damage to your teeth, then it’s likely that your facial pain is actually related to tooth damage.

As with other types of pain, the most common cause of neck pain in TMJ is muscle tension. When your jaw joint is imbalanced, and jaw muscles are working inefficiently or even against each other, jaw muscle fatigue sets in. Fatigued muscles often recruit neighboring muscles to help them out. These recruited muscles can also get tired and sore.

But sometimes you may experience pinched nerves that result in neck pain. The human spinal column is a delicately stacked tower of blocks held in place by various muscles in the back and neck. When the jaw joint recruits neck muscles disproportionately on one side, it can pull the neck out of alignment. When this happens, the space for nerves to emerge from the spine becomes restricted on one side, leading to pressured or pinched nerves. This can cause pain or tingling and numbness, either locally in the neck or as far away as the fingers.