Pain/cramp in jaw bone - especially when I drink alcohol/spirits

I just did a search and found this. I have this same experience I thought I was the only one. It dosen't happen all the time and is usually with wine, but can be beer. It seems my pain isn't as bad as others. Mine is rioght between the jaw and ears and sort of feels like if you blow up a baloon. I find that rubbing the area or blowing air into my nose when I hold it helps a little. what the hech is causeing this. The explainations so far seem a bit out there.

Finally I have managed to google with results on the same topic. I too experience the same pain. Right below the ear, by the pressure point top of the jaw. And it happens after 1 or 2 beers, wine, spirits, and alcohol. It is not always, but often. I have challenged my girlfriend in Med. School to research this seemingly unknown problem...

It is always after the first drink or 2. Then it always goes away.

Hey i just found this site on google. I am having pain in my jaw just like everyone, this is the second time it has ever happened and it was just from a bottle of beer. So strange!

Since this is the only site that suggests something other than hodgkin's disease, a possibility I would prefer not to consider, I thought I would add my case.

Tonight at dinner I was drinking white wine and experienced the extremely shart, stabbing pain below the jawline, just toward the front of (but below) my ears.

I have sinus problems and currently am moderately congested, and this could definitely be related to the congestion.

I'm not sure if my experience was different from the others, because my pain was pretty intense but extremely short-lived and occuring immediately after I swallowed a sip -- like a flash of white hot pain and then nothing.

The websites that mention Hodgkins seem to suggest longer-lasting pain and also more of a radiating factor.

Thanks for sharing your information.

It is nice to find that me and my step father are not the only ones with this 'thing' that happens. I have noticed it only from beer. I dont think that it is from the better beers because I have had it happen with Killians Red on draft and just now with a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. I noticed that someone else mentioned that it also happened sometimes with the first bite of cheese. I just had a slice of pizza and one beer and it happened. Thanks for the water solution. I drink tons of beer and this only happens about once a month.

The 'Native American" connection to this is also pretty interesting. I am part Muscogee (Creek).

Another one of life's little mysteries, I guess.

Yes I get this problem too. I have had this problem for maybe 15 years, since I started drinking alcohol. It's a sharp stinging sensation in the muscles in my jaw. I think it's something to do with the impurities in the alcohol, the more impure the stronger the reaction. It doesn't happen evey time I drink though. Plus it tends to go after the first or second drink but it's so painful that I often don't even bother having one. I do have a lot of tension in my TMJ so I've always thought that maybe the alcohol makes an already tense joint spasm. And for the record I do have a sensitivity to sulfites but the reaction I get is very different to when I drink alcohol.
Anyway it's nice to know it's not just me.

Wow! I can't believe that I read all those posts and no answers. I have the exact same problem and it's good to know I'm not alone. It mostly happens with wine for me (and slightly less often beer). It usually happens when I'm just drinking lightly. 1-2 glasses.

It's scary to think that no one's doctor or wife believes them.

Thanks for the drinking water tip.

Why are there no doctors weighing in on this? I've had it for about a year. Sometimes my teeth hurt, in addition to my jaw. I've suspected that alcohol triggers atypical migraine-like pain... but I have to GUESS because no doctor I've found can give me answers.

I get the shooting-- almost stabbing pain-- under my ears, at the jaw level when I drink alcohol as well. It seems to be the worst when I haven't eaten a lot that day. But it is weird how sometimes I get it and other times I'm virtually unaffected by the drinks. There is some kind of gland located in our jaw area that doctors often check at visits to see if its swollen. I think the pain is coming from it, but I'm no doctor... I wish this wasn't the only site I could find that matched the symptoms I searched for :'( ...

I'm so glad to have found this thread, even though it doesn't offer much in the way of an answer.
I'm a 22 year old male, and for about the past year I've been afflicted with this problem. At first I thought it was a combination of things. I used to smoke cigarettes, and loved to have a beer to go with some chips. But then after the meal, often while having a smoke and finishing my beer, the pain would set in. I figured it was somehow the combination of salt with alcohol or smoking with alcohol, or all three. But then it started occurring on other moments as well. So I thought it had to do with beer in cans, as I didn't seem to get it when drinking from a bottle or tapped beer.
I've just finished what I had left in wine... and guess what. Jaw pain. Yesterday it only gave me a headache, but today... the jaw thing again.
I'm really baffled by this. Quite obviously many people suffer from this, but it would seem doctors are reluctant to take the matter seriously. I guess they just don't really know what the heck is going on.
So, perhaps we should offset our experiences and contexts against each other. I'm gonna give a list of things that might affect the problem in my case, and if anyone has any of these on their checklist as well, let us know! Or, if you can add any, please do so. If we somehow find a common parameter, it might bring us closer to a solution to this mystery...
Here goes:
- I'm male
- The problem started around the age of 21 (the same age I started getting hangovers)
- It doesn't always occur upon consumption of alcohol.
- I think I've not had the problem with spirits, just with beer and wine.
- I've worn braces. I still have some threads at the back of my teeth.
- I've had my wisdom teeth removed chirugically.
- I'm a smoker. Just happened to quit cigarettes, still smoke cigars and very occasionaly pipe.
- I eat very little (monday to friday I have an average of three meals).

Hoping we can find some common aspect here. For now, I'm grateful for the hint about drinking water. This is seriously starting to affect me, I'm afraid of having a drink now!

Yes, I have this too. I never had pain under my jaw from drinking in the past, then about two years it started. It seems to get worse each month, to the point now I rarely drink. Thing is, I can get this pain which feels like a swolen silva (lymph?) gland now even when I don't drink for days. It hurts tonight, and I have not had a beer in a week. I was so concerned I saw a ENT, and he basically did nothing, didn't know what was wrong. He said to see him again if it didn't go away and they would run a CAT scan or something. I have a bad feeling about this! Anyway, i am in very good health otherwise, and 39 years old.

I also have this problem, it happens about once in 25 times I drink beer. The pain is severe, and massaging below the ear, behind the jaw helps a lot. I am allergic to Sulfites, but I carefully select beer without preservatives, so I don't think that is it. It will go away in an hour or so.
I have nothing else that I can connect to this, as I am perfectly healty ortherwise. I am 64 and this has happend intermittently all my life. I never brought it up to my Dr., as I really suffer from the tests he sends me on when I open my big mouth about things. I will spare you all the stories.

I am pretty sure that this pain in the jaw (that I also experience) is from dehydration. When you do not drink enough and then drink something that dehydrates you (which is all alcoholic beverages (caffeine too)) your muscles quickly dry out and cause pain. I found this out on a TMJ (TEMPOROMANDIBULAR JOINT DISEASE) website.

Advice: If you know that you want to have a drink make sure you have a couple glasses of water with your dinner and drink water in between each beer/drink. That seems to help a lot :-) Good luck!

wow, I'm amazed to find I'm not alone! I'm suffering the exact same thing as I type. I'm a moderate drinker, I too don't get it every time I drink alcohol, and I noticed it seems more likely to happen when I drink a glass of wine rather than beer! and it only lasts 30 mins. below the ears, where the jaw bone "ends"...

Seems that we all found each other the same way (surfing the web for what this mysterious jaw pain could be ) and all have similar symptoms. I find it is a bit more persistent with Smirnoff Ice /Bacardi Silver/Mikes Hard Lemonade type drinks, does anyone else find this to be true?