Shooting pains in jaw when eating and drinking alcohol - part 2

This is a great discovery! I too was just experiencing intense jaw pain which usually occurs after consuming alcohol. I drank the juice from a lemon (Vitamin C) and Bang!!! Instantly the massive jaw pain went away. However, it returned after about 5 minutes so I drank more lemon juice. This Vitamin C thing seem to work, although in my case, temporarily. Thanks for the posting of your experience.

 

I'm yet another person who has similar pain and found this thread in Google. Last night I had a beer with my dinner (spicy food) and the jaw pain was very intense.

Thing is, I remembered last night that I've occasionally and inconsistently had 'tingling' in the sides of my jaw for as long as I can remember. It is brought on by food or drink, normally if I hadn't eaten in a while. It has never been frequent, and just occasionally pops up now and then, though never painful, but perhaps occasionally uncomfortable.

As I've gotten older, the 'tingling' has gotten more intense, though no more frequent. I'm not a big drinker at all – probably only have a few beers a year. But last nights 'episode' what probably the most painful, it lasted for longer than it has before and could definitely be described as painful. Though I didn't find the pain overwhelming, it was a cross between muscular and glandular type pain – like being stabbed with little needles in the sides of my jaw. I can still feel remnants of the pain this morning, kinda like an aftershock.

I've never given a huge amount of thought to it before, but was aware it was quirky. It's interesting to read the responses of fellow sufferers in this thread. I've got some vitamin C tablets, so going suck on them and see what happens.

It is an odd one. It just comes out of nowhere!

Just an update: got back from having two beers at the bar and dinner and got the jaw pain thing again.  Didn't have any Vitamin C pills on hand, but found some pineapple and cantaloupe to munch on.  Problem solved.

This Vitamin C thing still baffles me, but I guess it's still working.  Go figure.

Just wanted to add myself to this group, I'm having the pain right now, 1 beer and a couple handful's of mixed nuts set it off....

I started noticing this a couple of years ago. It ONLY happened after eating sushi and consuming cold sake, and happened EVERY time. The other night I had Crown Royal whiskey with water and ate blackened Tilapia with shrimp and a parm cream sauce and experienced the pain. The only correlation would be the seafood. Cooked seafood was never a problem before, nor had I noticed it with the whiskey, but only with the sake and sushi. Anyone notice these specifics with the problem areas?

I recently started having this problem. I know mine is caused by damage to one of the nerves in my neck. I don't know if this is everyone's problem, but i just wanted to throw the idea out there.

Update on my update: Just got back from lunch and was having the pain.  Chewed a Vitamin C and it's gone.  As always, the first bite is incredibly painful, but after a few chews all the pain goes away.  I continue to be floored that this works, but have started taking the chewable tablets with me when I travel because they've been so effective.  For what it's worth, the ones I'm using are Nature Made Chewable Vitamin C 500mg with "Orange and other natural flavors".  Nothing fancy, I just bought it at the grocery store in the vitamin section.

Thanks to whomever found this solution.  As unlikely as it may be, it's been working for me for the better part of a year now.  Amazing.

Somebody mentioned something up-thread about it being about the "sour" taste and not the actual Vitamin C.  Thinking more about that, it's a fairly interesting hypothesis.  Assuming it is glandular, there is a salivary gland roughly in the right spot called the Submandibular Gland that might be the culprit.  Also, someone mentioned feeling like it needs to "pop" after you first chew the pill -- and this is my experience as well with intense pain as soon as you taste the pill -- which might be the gland finally being able to excrete again from a blockage, or something along those lines.

So, possibly the sour taste causes your mouth to water, which of course means your salivary gland excretes, which in turn might force out any blockage that's causing the pain.

If I get a chance I'm going to try a sour candy that should in theory have very little Vitamin C in it and see if that's just as effective.

Anyway, just a thought.

IDEA  maybe this is why we are served a slice of citrus with our drinks. 

Hi everybody, ****I apologize to everybody in advance, but this is a very, very long post, BUT PLEASE READ IT! I THINK IT COULD HAVE THE SOLUTION EVERYBODY IS LOOKING FOR!**** I'm glad to find that I'm not alone in this, but as a medical student and a long term sufferer myself, I've been extremely keen on figuring out what this is... and I think I have the answer. It's not JUST Sialolithiasis, as one of the posters diagnosed it, or may not involve the disease at all, but I think it could be a factor for some people... Before I get there, I do have a couple questions for other posters, my fellow sufferers: Does anyone experience this pain WITHOUT alcohol, such as after excercising very hard and breathing through the mouth heavily? How about anyone experiencing this while on over-the-counter allergy medications, especially ones that come with pseudophedrine? What about after maybe a lot of coffee during the day, or any other heavily caffeinated drinks? The only reason why I ask is because of my story... Essentially, I used to drink alcohol, nothing too egregious, but your occasional beer or glass of scotch with some buddies. It wouldn't happen every time, but I get the pain only sometimes I would drink, and the pain would be excrutiating. Well, now, I've quit drinking due to school and work demands, and I still experienced the pain after I did a very strenuous cardio workout... I haven't had a drop of alcohol in over six months now, so I know this isn't just an alcohol thing... Also, a post here said that someone gets the pain after smoking a cigarette, and I used to be a smoker (quit that a year ago), and I know that that'd, occasionally, cause the pain for me as well. And with the flurry of posts about how people ate fruit, or had a chewable vitamin C tablet got to me. In fact, there was one post where the affected individual brushed his teeth, and the pain subsided, that really got me thinking. So, I need someone to do this for me, since my pain doesn't happen very frequently these days: instead of scrounging around for something that has Vitamin C in it, can you chew a stick of gum for me? Or if you have it, can you grab something that has sugar in it? Or better yet, just eat a spoonful of sugar right when the pain occurs? My theory is fairly simple... So I don't think has anything to do with vitamin deficiency or anything like that. I think we all have dehydration issues instead... issues that especially affect the mouth, or what's called Xerostomia, commonly referred to as dry mouth... but there is obviously something else that is affecting us in particular, otherwise this would be far more common, and we wouldn't be searching the Internet like we have been for a solution... I think this is where the submandibular salivary gland and its various afflictions come into play. I think we have either blocked ducts or narrow passages / duct openings into the mouth. Blockages of this gland or any of the salivary glands in the mouth is called Sialiolithaisis. I think what happens is that once we dehydrate the mouth, either due to medications that have a dehydrating and/or stimulatory effect on you (e.g. allergy medications, pseudophedrine, or other stimulants), caffeine or alcohol intake (both of which have not only a drying effect in your mouth as soon as you drink the drink, but also since both are diuretics, i.e. they both make you pee more, they further deplete the water in our bodies), or due to smoking / tobacco use, I think we aggravate the ducts in the submandibular salivary gland at the base of our tongues, right next to the jaw, or do something to aggravate the nerves in the area. This causes the acute, sharp pain we all feel... And from there, I think what a Vitamin C lozenge, or a lemon, or any fruits, do is reactivate those salivary glands... not because of the Vitamin C, but because of the sugar and "sour" taste, which automatically puts those glands into overdrive... And then the rehydration of the mouth essentially lubricates the passage way of the gland for saliva to start flowing again. This is also why my theory explains why some people are able to make the pain subside by brushing, and not just through vitamin c-based products / produce, because brushing has a similar effect of promoting salivation of the mouth. Now, if someone could test this theory, that'd be much appreciated, and in the meantime, I am going to go to my medical school professor to confirm this, and/or see if he has anything to add. I'm not entirely sure, but I think rather than have those calcium-based blockages, the Sialothiasis that I was talking about earlier... instead, there is something that exposes the glossopharyngeal nerve, a very important nerve that runs through the jaw and your throat to your brain. I think this nerve is normally kept in the tissue without any problems, but the exposure to air when we have dry mouth causes it to go haywire and start hurting like a mother******. Since it is such a big nerve, the pain is that much more due to its aggravation. I find it hard to believe that all of us have stones stuck in our ducts and that we just can't feel them any other time other than when we eat, drink, smoke, or exercise. It's not totally impossible, but I find it fairly unlikely. Regardless, despite me wanting to make sure I have the details figured out (chalk it up to my perfectionism and need to know everything =]), I still think the solution is eating or chewing on anything that makes you salivate. So, chew a stick of gum, eat a spoonful of sugar, eat a vitamin c tablet, grab a lemon... I think any of these things could work. I'm hoping that someone can do something that very obviously doesn't have vitamin C... if your have a sour candy, that'd be great. I think the sourness of Vitamin C, which is an acid (asorbic acid), and acids make you clench and squeeze the back of the mouth, may be the other piece to the puzzle here. That's why I think lemons, lime, all the fruits where Vitamin C and citric acid (a rather potent acid, giving the distinct "sourness" to certain fruits) is abundant, work better than other things that people are doing, like brushing their teeth or eating melon (which doesn't have much citric acid in it, but does have a lot of fructose, which is essentially sugar; hence, my theory that sugar should be enough). Anyways, let's see if we can figure this out together!! I do hope that one of these things or a combination work for you, and I'm looking forward to your posts on whether or not it does! Cheers, Matt

I can't believe I found this! I couldn't even say how long I've been having this problem for, but I think I started to notice it within the past few weeks. Usually I don't think anything of it because I'm always out when I'm drinking and not around my computer so I end up forgetting about it. Then tonight after a long day I drank ONE beer and ate a snack and the pain came. I never connected food and alcohol with the pain, I've only ever noticed it when I'm drinking. It went away after a few minutes, it was just extremely uncomfortable. Massaging under my ears sort of helped, and my roommate just looked at me like I was crazy. Oddly enough, I've had a similar (yet less painful) feeling in my shoulders when first start drinking. It almost feels like my shoulders ache and there is a lot of pressure on them, similar to the jaw issue. I've had that issue for at least four years now, but the jaw issue is recent. Anyways, the above post by Matt is interesting. I also find it interesting that it's not common! I'm really curious as to what it really is and how known it is!

i just got this, and was simply eating 'apple sauce'. I get this when I have tomato sauce with pasta too.

as someone mentioned it feels like 'charlie horse' cramp as you get in the foot or calf, at jaw directly below the ear.

Wow! thank goodness I'm not alone. I've been getting this for years on an off when I drink wine. I don't get it every time so I think it must be a response to a specific ingredient used in the wine. Really painful, nerve tingling and shooting pains, which forces me to stop drinking.

Thanks for all of the advice it's really helpful.

I've had this for a very long time (maybe all my life??) and like many here have just looked it up to see if others know the cause. For me it feels like a fizzy sharp but continuous cramp in the upper jaw.

This time I had just drunk some cider, but I drink adfair bit of cider an don't usually get it then. I usually get it when eating cheese, particularly strong cheddar!