Questions Your Doctor May Ask - and Why!
During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in his assesment of the symptom: Jaw pain.
These may include a physical examination or other medical tests.
Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing
your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information
you can share with your doctor may help them with their diagnosis.
Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:
- How long have you had jaw pain?
Why: to determine if acute or chronic.
- It is unilateral or bilateral?
- Is the jaw pain constant or intermittent?
Why: intermittent pain may suggest trigeminal neuralgia or glossopharyngeal neuralgia.
- How would you explain the nature of the jaw pain?
Why: e.g. lightning quality of pain suggests neuralgia; herpes zoster pain may be burning and have an abnormal increased sensitivity to touch.
- What aggravates the jaw pain?
Why: e.g. pain increased by chewing often suggests being related to the temporomandibular joint, but it could be related to trigeminal neuralgia or dental caries; trigeminal neuralgia pain may be aggravated by talking, chewing, touching certain trigger areas on the face, cold weather or wind or turning onto pillow; glossopharyngeal neuralgia may be triggered by swallowing, coughing and talking.
- History of trauma to the jaw?
Why: may suggest fractured jaw or dislocated jaw.
- Have you had a recent upper respiratory tract infection?
Why: may suggest sinusitis which can cause referred pain to the jaw.
- Recent dental extraction?
Why: may indicate cause of jaw pain or possible Actinomycosis infection of the jaw joint which causes localized swelling of the lower jaw.
- Past medical history?
Why: some medical conditions may affect the temporomandibular joint e.g. osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis; trigeminal neuralgia may be caused by multiple sclerosis, neurosyphilis or tumor of the back of the brain.
Questions your doctor may ask about related symptoms:
Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse
your condition. These may include:
- Abnormalities of teeth or gums (such as gum or tooth pain)?
Why: may suggest referred pain from dental caries, gingivitis, oral tumors or alveolar abscess.
- Dental malocclusion +/- grinding teeth during sleep?
Why: the basic cause of temporomandibular joint dysfunction is dental malocclusion.
- Vesicular Rash around the area of pain?
Why: would suggest Herpes Zoster or Ramsay Hunt syndrome.
- Chest pain?
Why: angina and heart attacks may cause pain which radiates to the left side of the neck and jaw.
- Symptoms of temporomandibular joint dysfunction?
Why: e.g. pain felt over the jaw joint and localized to the region of the ear but may radiate forwards to the cheek and even the neck; pain and limitation of jaw movements especially on opening the mouth, clicking and crackling in the jaw joint with movement.
- Symptoms of maxillary sinusitis?
Why: e.g. facial pain and tenderness which may radiate to the jaw, toothache, post-nasal drip nasal obstruction, runny nose, cough, fever, bleeding nose.
- Symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia ("tic douloureux")?
Why: e.g. brief paroxysms of excruciating, searing jabs of pain like a burning knife or electric shock over one side of the face, rarely occurs at night.
- Symptoms of giant cell arteritis (temporal arteritis)?
Why: e.g. headache over the inflamed artery on the temporal area, skin over these arteries may be red, may have pain in the face, jaw and mouth which is characteristically worse with eating, may have a sudden painless visual loss in one eye, generalized limb pains occur in 50% of people.
» Next page: News about Jaw pain
Rate This Website
What do you think about the features of this website?
Take our user survey and have your say:
Website User Survey
Medical Tools & Articles:
Next articles:
Tools & Services:
Medical Articles:
Forums & Message Boards
- Ask or answer a question at the Boards:
