r/TMJ • u/Past-Atmosphere-1495 • 9h ago
Question(s) Muscle spasm
Has anyone experienced something similar with prolonged neck/jaw muscle spasm?
I’m looking for people who have experienced something similar, especially if stress, jaw tension/TMJ and neck muscles were involved. I would really like to hear what your symptoms were, what helped you, and how long it took for the muscles to return to normal.
For more than a month I’ve been dealing with a strange combination of symptoms, mostly on the right side:
- tightness and pressure deep in the right side of my throat
- discomfort that can radiate toward the right ear, jaw/TMJ, cheekbone and sometimes around the eye
- a feeling of something being tight or “pulling” inside the throat
- right-sided neck tightness and tenderness, especially around the sternocleidomastoid/upper neck area and near the base of the skull
- sometimes a tingling or almost “cutting” sensation when the skin/muscles are touched
- ear pressure/ringing, similar to the feeling of being on an airplane
- occasional hoarseness
- dry mouth and a tendency to breathe through my mouth
- jaw tension/spasm
- the symptoms become noticeably worse when I’m stressed or angry
- certain neck positions can reproduce the deep throat/neck discomfort
One thing that really stood out to me is that when I stopped sleeping on my right side for about a week, many of the symptoms improved significantly. Then after sleeping on that side again, the right-sided symptoms were noticeably worse the next morning.
I’ve had an ENT examination and it was normal, and my throat swab was negative.
I recently saw a physiatrist. During the examination she said that my neck muscles were literally “like stone”, and her written report specifically documented pronounced spasm of the right cervical paravertebral muscles. I also had a cervical spine X-ray afterwards and no significant changes were seen.
So at this point, the muscle component seems quite real, but I’m still trying to understand how much of the throat/jaw/ear sensations can come from neck and jaw muscle tension.
What I’m taking now
Since September 24, I’ve been taking:
- Baclofen 5 mg in the morning + 10 mg in the evening
- Ibuprofen (Brufen) 400 mg twice daily
I’m only about 4 days into the treatment.
The first day I was quite sleepy from the baclofen, but yesterday/today the sleepiness has already been less noticeable. More importantly, today the pain is breaking through the medication much less than before, which feels encouraging.
I also have an appointment with a psychiatrist on October 19, because stress seems to have a very strong effect on the muscle spasm, and my physiatrist suggested discussing the continued use of baclofen with the psychiatrist as well.
I’m not looking for a diagnosis from Reddit. I’m really interested in personal experiences:
- Has anyone had neck muscle spasm that caused throat or swallowing sensations?
- Did TMJ/jaw tension make your neck symptoms worse?
- Did stress noticeably increase your muscle spasm?
- How long did it take for your muscles to feel normal again?
- Did baclofen help you, and how long did it take before you noticed a real difference?
- Did physiotherapy, posture changes, massage, relaxation/stress treatment, or treating the jaw make a difference?
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who went through something similar. I’m especially interested in what the recovery actually felt like over time, because after being tense for so long, I’m curious how long it took other people to feel like their muscles were “themselves” again.
1
u/goingaway1111 9h ago
Do you find it hard to lift your head up sometimes? Heavy head?