Jaw pain

[OldSkoolMark]

I've experienced overuse injuries before - mostly upper lip muscle pulls due to excessive mouthpiece pressure or just plain overuse. However, the day after a 3 hour big band gig, I woke up with a sore jaw. Chewing was painful. Playing was painful and the higher the register the more pain. I did not feel particularly taxed by the gig, so I thought I had some kind of ear infection or swollen lymph nodes. Luckily my flute player is a doctor and upon inspection, he found no sign of infection or swollen lymph nodes, and thought that it had to be neuro muscular. The pain is located at the base of your ear. If you put your index finger there you can feel your jaw move. No clicking. Probably not TMJ. It's been responding to 2 naprosen twice per day. I gave it 2 days rest and then did a mandatory rehearsal. Yesterday there was a little discomfort when I played so I gave it a break. We'll see how it feels today when I warm up.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

[Doug Elliott]

When I was in college, long before I knew what I know now, I had that happen a couple of times.

It's from playing in a way that's not totally correct for your embouchure, and doing something else to compensate. I would have to see it to get more specific.

[Splendour]

I've had similar pain but in reverse.
I have a pronounced underbite so when I'm playing I bring my lower jaw forward to form my embourchure. If I don't play for a week or two then the muscles around the hinge of my jaw start to complain about their change of regieme, which can lead to my neck and shoulder muscles stiffening up too.
Serves me right for not practicing

[Vegasbound]

Have a lesson with Doug!

[harrisonreed]

I used to have a ton of jaw pain. I tried building endurance, massaging my jaw, resting, you name it. It just got worse and worse as the playing demands increased. When I moved to a larger cup diameter mouthpiece on a whim, which let my embouchure move naturally, the jaw pain went away within about a day.

I used to have a ton of back pain. Years of stretching, massaging, chiropractor, you name it. The longer I was in the Army, the worse it got. It must be the daily PT, early wake ups, and ruck marching. Am I going to have to quit or get med boarded because the strain is too much on my back? Then I stopped wearing a belt. The pain was gone within about a day. Seriously, years of horrible pain, caused by the dumbest thing.

Are these related? Who knows. I think, though, that your body needs to be able to circulate and move freely, all day long. If your jaw is held into an unnatural position by a mouthpiece that is the wrong size, that might be part of it.

[Ebert]

Mine just completely healed up some couple of days ago and i'm more than glad.

[DOOMGUYplaystbn]

Besides taking a lesson with Doug, I would second what Harrison said. I was having similar jaw pain when practicing on my tenor a few weeks ago, since I primarily play bass, and the 5G I had was fairly constricting and was reflected in jaw pain. A larger cup diameter definitely helped the pain go away (not that that's what you need necessarily, but always be mindful of when equipment should be adjusted for what works for you).