Painful hard lump under jaw causing ear pain and migraines

Posted by shannonwin198 @shannonwin198, Dec 14, 2021

I’ve been dealing with a very painful hard mass/lump (it doesn’t move when I push on it it’s just swollen) right at the curve of my jaw for the past month, it causes shooting throbbing pain when I bend over, sneeze, or cough. The pain radiates deep into my ear and down my neck. I have also had bad migraines

I’ve been on 2 different antibiotics and none of them have helped and it has gotten worse.
I do still have my wisdom teeth and they are growing in sideways and impacted. I’m not experiences tooth or gum pain but I’m wondering if what I’m experiencing is related to my wisdom teeth. I don’t have difficulty chewing and my jaw it’s self feels fine. It’s just this hard lump is very tender and painful and my entire ear hurts badly.

Any advice or ideas of what might be going on are appreciated. Not necessarily looking for a diagnoses, I have a doc appointment in 3 days but I’m kind of afraid and wonder if I should go sooner. Thanks

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Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor | @jenniferhunter | Dec 14, 2021

Hi Shannon and welcome to Connect. Getting pain in your jaw can come from different sources, so it's good that you are having a medical professional check it out. I do think if the doctor's office thought this was an emergency, they would have told you so when scheduling. There can be physical issues that cause this kind of pain. I am a spine surgery patient and had a cervical surgery for a ruptured C5/C6 disc. I was getting similar pains caused by muscle spasms that rotated my vertebrae independently. At one time I thought I had a hard lump in my neck, and it was the spineous process that sticks out to the side of each vertebrae. The muscles attach to them, so a shortened muscle from a spasm can turn them. The C1 & C2 vertebrae will be close to the jaw as they are right under the base of the skull. I had similar pain like ear pain and pain up the back or side of my head when my vertebrae were out of alignment. In order to feel if the alignment is off, you would need to lie on your back and put your neck on slack, and then a doctor or physical therapist can feel with their hands to see if the spineous processes are all lined up. Has your dentist done any X-rays showing issues with wisdom teeth? Have you had any injuries to your spine like a whiplash? That can create instability that can cause the vertebrae to slip past each other if the discs are not holding them securely. How long has this been causing pain for you? Have you had any spine imaging done?