I've never had this symptom before tho it's freaking me out... my neck hurts(gets a sharp pain at C3/4 I think ) when I open my mouth to chew food!

While getting ready to travel to Florida for 2 weeks I've been doing a bunch of things in this last week that my body is telling me not to do but my mind is telling me I have to!

So I've had back pain, and migraines every day and some very weird symptoms on the left side of my face near my jaw and ear and alongside the left outter aspect of my mouth. Also I have this weird feeling in my neck, can't describe it but it's something like it's not going to support my head...

Now today I have this weird pain in my neck when I chew!!

Fortunately I see my OSS on Monday before I leave (Mon.night). The appt.is for my back tho I'm definately going to mention the way my neck is feeling. I had an cervical MRI last summer and have DDD at 3 levels and 2 small disc bulges and some other stuff tho I've never paid my neck much attention even tho it's gone out a few times as my back is the "big prob"..

Have any cervies ever had this symptom?

Hi Maria:

Used to get lots of bruxing with neck pain. Could be a TMJ related thing. Palpate your neck while you getting chewing/pain/sensation. See if you can maassage it out.

Good luck, hope you feel better!

Glen, it's not that .. it's a deep sharp pain in the very back of my neck like a zinging stabbing pain

Sorry to hear of this development; hope you find resoution soon.

Maria, I've had that symptom before, although it's always been associated with a general "neck going out" episode. On some of the worst ones, I would have lots of pain on swallowing or clearing my sinuses. I think that it's probably just muscle spasms or a yanked ligament. Just for the record, as my neck episodes got more frequents, I took the big step and got my herniated, degenerated c5/c6 preplaced with a Pro-disc C (last week). After you get your lumbar issues settled, you might want to get the neck going too.

Laura,
Had an MRI of my cervical spine done last July and tho the results yielded a response of normal for my age from my Dr., I feel that what I have is very similar to the way my lumbar area started, altho combined with muscle spasm and myofascial pain, it's difficult to tell what came first, the chicken or the egg...
Since this is NOT WC related, with this particular area of the spine I can go wherever I would like should things take on a surgical necessity~ One thing I know for certain is that should I ever get to the point I'm able to get my back situation more or less resolved and can resume working, the neck is going to be even more problematic I think so would need a good "tune up"~