- Home
- Conditions
- Jaw
- Restricted Jaw Opening
Restricted Jaw Opening
Reduced jaw opening — trismus — makes eating, dental treatment and sometimes speaking difficult. It follows prolonged dental work, wisdom tooth removal, jaw injury, or a locked joint. It responds well to graded stretching and manual therapy, and the earlier it is addressed the more straightforward it is.
5.0
Does this sound like you?
Most people have several of these, not all of them.
- Opening limited to less than about three finger widths
- Difficulty eating anything that requires a wide bite
- Pain at the end of the available range
- The jaw deviating to one side as it opens
- Difficulty tolerating dental examination
Why it happens
- Prolonged dental procedures or wisdom tooth extraction
- A locked joint where the disc is not reducing
- Muscle spasm following injury or infection
- Scarring after surgery or radiotherapy to the head and neck
- Longstanding untreated jaw dysfunction
What we would do about it
Roughly in this order — each step waits for the one before it.
- Establishing the cause, since a locked disc and muscle spasm need different handling
- Graded stretching and controlled opening work
- Manual therapy and dry needling to the chewing muscles
- Heat and soft tissue work through the jaw and neck
- Diet advice through the restricted phase
- Referral back to the dentist or a specialist where indicated
See a doctor first if
- Your pain followed a significant injury
- It is getting worse rather than settling
- It comes with numbness, weakness or unexplained weight loss
This page is general information, not a diagnosis. Symptoms overlap between conditions, so the right treatment depends on an assessment.
Easier to treat early than late
Jaw restriction after dental work usually responds quickly if it is addressed within the first weeks. Left for months it takes considerably longer. Ask a question first, or call us on 0403 907 587.
Trouble with the form? Open booking in a new tab or call 0403 907 587.
Other jaw conditions we treat
Related reading: locking of the jaw joint, general jaw pain and clenching and grinding.
General information only, not advice about your own problem — nothing here replaces an assessment. Source: Temporomandibular Disorders on Physiopedia.
