Sore jaw/ear - anyone had this?

For the last 3 days, I've had what started off as feeling kinda like a sore inner ear, and now it feels like it's more in my jaw. It's just on one side, and it's a constant ache and a strong pain when I try to bite down on that side, or move my jaw left or right (the pain is in the jaw though, kinda by my ear lobe and above, not in my teeth).

Does anyone know what this is? Is it a jaw something or an ear thing? Do I need to get it checked out?

TIA

No I had my wisdom teeth removed 5 years ago...

Hmm I was going to say wisdom teeth too. My sister had jaw/ear pain when she had an infection in her mouth (gums? I think?) too, so yeah I would try get a sneaky check of your ears at the doc but maybe try the dentist..?

Yep, I wonder about TMJ (temporomandibular joint) - it where the jaw bone connects to the temporal bone on the side of your head. The joint is a cm or so in front of the bottom of your ear. It's a really common joint to get inflammed or irritated; a classic stress joint. It often get worse if you're clenching your jaw or teeth a lot (sometimes you do it in your sleep without realising).

You could try some Nurofen - NF has anti inflammatories in which are great for reducing any irritation or inflammation at the joint. Acupuncture can be really effective if it goes on for a while. And keep giving your jaw a work out - open and close your mouth; move jaw side to side; try and conciously think about how tense your jaw is

Edited by Flissty

My sister just had an operation to sort out some discs at the top of her jaw (connection to ear area). She was also having trouble with loud noises and by the end of most nights her jaw would have almost seized from all the day's use. Hopefully that's not it?

Stress/anxiety- I had terrible jaw/sorta inner ear trouble once and its was just from me being tense, was especially bad at night.

i had this too a couple of months ago, it got really painful but it did go away after week or so.
I got totally paranoid about it, but think it was just strain or maybe i grind my teeth.

Yeah, it's really common, moreso in women than men. Acupuncture has a reasonable success rate but costs (unless you're like my DH and have TMJ probs, then get hit in the jaw by a soccer ball - yay for ACC!). One of the bigs steps in managing it is being aware of it in the first place and being aware of what your jaw is doing - then you can start consciously relaxing your jaw which is all good.