Jaw clicking when you’re eating can ruin your meal, especially if it’s painful. Jaw pain and clicking can be a sign of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) – a collective term for a group of conditions causing pain and/or dysfunction in your jaw joint, jaw muscles, and surrounding tissues [1].
We’ll explore why your jaw may be clicking when eating, the causes and symptoms of TMD, and the treatment options available. We’ll also look at the private jaw joint treatments offered by our expert clinicians and how they can help you fix your clicking jaw for good.
Why is my jaw clicking when I’m eating?
Jaw clicking when chewing is often a sign of TMD, a condition that affects the movement and function of your jaw. You may experience a wide range of other symptoms if you have TMD, including pain.
It’s vital to get jaw pain assessed if it affects eating because this can have a knock-on effect on your quality of life and whether you’re getting adequate nutrition. Research shows that even with mild TMD, people tend to avoid chewing and eat less often due to symptoms [2].
The different types of conditions that make up TMD include:
- Myofascial pain: This describes pain in the muscles and fascia (connective tissue that covers the muscles) of the jaw, neck, and shoulder. This is the most common type of TMD.
- Altered jaw joint alignment: This may be due to an injury, medical procedure, or condition that alters the alignment of your temporomandibular joint (TMJ). It includes a dislocated jaw, displaced disc (the cartilage between your skull and jaw bone), or an injured condyle (the end of your jaw bone that moves against your skull bone).
- Degenerative joint disease: Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis are degenerative conditions that can damage your jaw joint over time.
What are the symptoms of TMD?
Aside from your jaw clicking when eating, you may experience other uncomfortable symptoms if you have TMD. These include:
- Headaches and neck aches
- Clicking or popping of your jaw when you yawn or open your mouth
- Earaches or tinnitus (ringing in your ears), (not caused by an ear infection)
- Reduced movement in your jaw joint
- Dizziness
- Sensitivity of your teeth (when this is not normal for you)
- Tingling or numbness in your arms, hands, or fingers
- A change in the way your teeth fit together when you bite down
- Jaw pain, discomfort, or soreness which is often worse in the morning or evening
- Pain in your face, shoulder, back, or behind your eyes
Many of these symptoms can be caused by conditions other than TMD. Speak to your doctor, dentist, or oral surgeon to make sure you have the right diagnosis.
What causes TMD?
Many different underlying conditions can cause jaw clicking when eating and other symptoms of TMD. Here are some of the causes:
Jaw-clenching and teeth-grinding
You may not be aware that you grind your teeth (known as bruxism) or clench your jaw, because many people do it when they’re asleep or deeply focused on something else. These behaviours are often due to stress or anxiety and they can cause facial pain, headaches, and wear down your teeth.
Joint hypermobility syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
Roughly 10 people in every 5000 have Ehlers-Danlos or joint hypermobility syndrome [3]. These conditions cause joints to be unusually flexible and move through a larger range of movement than they should.
In the jaw joint, this can cause problems with your TMJ, including problems with opening your mouth and chewing, pain in your teeth or near your ear, popping, clicking or grinding in the jaw joint, and even dislocation. Dislocation is when the bones of your jaw joint separate completely, which can be very painful. You should never attempt to put a dislocated jaw back into place without medical help.
Ankylosing spondylitis
This condition usually starts in people aged 20-30 [4]. Ankylosing spondylitis causes inflammation in the ligaments and joints of the spine, but it can also affect other joints like the TMJ, leading to pain, stiffness and other symptoms of TMD [5].
Gout
Gout affects 1-2% of people in the UK [6]. It’s caused by a metabolite called uric acid that causes small crystals to form in and around your joints.
Uric acid is one of the end products of metabolism and is usually removed from your body in urine. If too much uric acid is formed, or if it is not removed effectively enough, it can crystallise in different parts of your body including the joints.
When it affects your jaw, it can lead to sudden pain and swelling. It can also make it difficult to open your mouth.
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis to affect the jaw joint [7]. This is where the bones and cartilage in your joint break down over time. When osteoarthritis affects your jaw it can cause symptoms of TMD, including jaw clicking when eating.
Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease where your body’s immune system attacks healthy tissue in your joints. RA can affect any joint in the body, including the jaw. Around 17% of people with RA experience symptoms in their jaw joint [8], including pain, stiffness, clicking and difficulty with movement.
Psoriatic arthritis
Psoriatic arthritis affects around 1 in 4 people who already have psoriasis – a skin condition causing patches of flaky, red skin [9]. It can affect any joint in the body, including the jaw joint, leading to pain, stiffness, swelling and restricted movement.
How to treat jaw clicking and other symptoms of TMD
In many cases, jaw clicking when eating is mild, lasts for a short period and does not require any treatment. However, if your clicking jaw is accompanied by pain or other troublesome symptoms of TMD, you may require treatment. Here are some of the treatments available:
Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy has been shown to improve the symptoms of TMD [10]. Here are some of the ways a physiotherapist can help with your symptoms:
Improving muscle spasm
Your physio can assess the muscles around your jaw and identify whether muscle spasms are contributing to your symptoms. They can reduce any spasm through manual therapy techniques and exercises.
Treating hypermobility
You may experience pain and TMD symptoms if your jaw joint moves further than it should. Physiotherapists can spot this pattern and prescribe strengthening exercises to stabilise your jaw, improving your symptoms.
Treating a stiff jaw joint
While you don’t want a jaw joint that moves too much, too little movement can also cause problems. If your physio finds you have a stiff TMJ, they can prescribe exercises and manual therapy to get your jaw moving better.
Pain relief
Your symptoms may be too painful to do physio exercises at the start of your treatment. If required, your physio can use modalities like acupuncture, massage, heat, ice, gentle manual therapy and electrotherapy to ease your pain enough to participate in more active treatment.
Postural training
Some cases of TMD are worsened by a forward head posture and postural muscles that aren’t working properly. Your physio can teach you exercises to improve your posture and the position of your head. They can also advise on changes to your workstation or car to encourage a better neck position when sitting.
Harley Street Specialist Hospital’s private physiotherapy team are well-versed in treating TMD. Our expert clinicians will put you at ease throughout your assessment and treatment sessions.
Regenerative medicine
Regenerative medicine aims to treat the root cause of your jaw problem by creating new, living tissue to replace the damaged tissue in your jaw joint. It makes use of cells from your own body and assists your body to heal itself. All the types of regenerative medicine listed below are offered by Harley Street Specialist Hospital.
Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate (BMAC)
This novel type of stem cell therapy has been shown to reverse the effects of osteoarthritis in the jaw joint [11]. It can also treat other conditions that involve damage to the bones and cartilage of your jaw joint.
BMAC makes use of stem cells taken from your bone marrow. The bone marrow is harvested from your pelvis under general anaesthetic or spinal anaesthesia. [12] With general anaesthetic you will be fully unconscious, and with spinal anaesthesia you will either be fully awake or partially conscious with sedation.
After harvesting, the marrow is separated into its separate parts, including plasma and mesenchymal stem cells – these cells play a key role in making and repairing bone and cartilage. The stem cells are then injected into your jaw joint to stimulate growth and repair.
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy
PRP involves extracting platelets that naturally occur in your blood. These platelets contain proteins called growth factors, which are responsible for cell growth, regeneration and repair [13].
A blood sample is taken from your arm and then placed in a centrifuge machine to separate the plasma from the bulk of blood cells. The plasma is then centrifuged again to separate the platelets. This sample is then injected into your jaw joint to help with the process of healing and regeneration.
Activated Mesenchymal Pericyte Plasma injections (AMPP®)
This procedure combines PRP therapy with Lipogems®, which uses reparative cells harvested from adipose (fat) tissue. This is often taken from your stomach or thigh and the principle remains the same – using cells for growth and repair to boost healing in the jaw joint.
The fat cells are taken while you are sedated and blood is taken from your arm for the PRP section of the treatment. The fat sample and blood sample are processed to harvest regenerative cells, then the sample is injected into your jaw joint.
Surgery
Surgery is considered when your symptoms don’t respond to other treatments. Here are some of the surgical options for TMD, all of which are offered by the experienced oral and maxillofacial surgeons at Harley Street Specialist Hospital.
- TMJ arthroscopy – A thin tube with a camera and light (arthroscope) is inserted into your jaw joint while you are under general anaesthetic. This allows your surgeons to remove or alter tissue as needed and can help with accurate diagnosis.
- TMJ open surgery – All TMJ open surgery procedures require a general anaesthetic. There are several different types of TMJ open surgery, with procedures to remove excess bone or tissue, and repair, reposition or replace the disc (cartilage) in your joint.
- TMJ replacement – This is where your jaw joint is replaced with a custom-made artificial joint. This is a complex procedure that requires around 3 months of planning and preparing, followed by a period of recovery in hospital and at home.
Home treatment
There are several ways to improve symptoms of TMD at home. One method is using a hot or cold compress in the affected area – heat can help to relax the muscles and cold can numb the area and decrease swelling.
You can also try stress reduction or meditation techniques to reduce jaw clenching or teeth grinding associated with TMD. Avoiding nail-biting, hard or crunchy foods, and chewing gum are all ways to relieve a clicking jaw and other symptoms of TMD.
Private treatment for TMD
Private treatment offers the convenience of selecting high-quality care at a time that’s convenient for you. Our clinicians are trained in the latest medical techniques and are experts in the management of TMD symptoms, including a clicking jaw on one side or both.
There are no waiting lists for treatment at Harley Street Specialist Hospital and you can often be assessed, diagnosed and treated on the same day. Book an appointment today to get the care you need.