Inability to open mouth: Causes & Management - Dr. Aniruddha KB

There are multiple reasons why we have inability to open the mouth. When we the third molar impaction done, what is going to happen is it can cause a swelling that is quite intense and it is going to cause a muscle spasm in that region where the extraction has been done. So what happens when this spasms happens is that the patient will have a little bit of difficulty on opening the mouth for a couple of days. So ideally we tell this space between the upper and the lower incisal edge should be 3 finger in length that is the adequate mouth opening. So if that is not there, then that is something that we need to address. What is the other reason that could possibly be because of the inability to open the mouth? In case if you have, maybe you have an ankyloses that is the fusion of the joint and the bone together and there is a restriction of the mouth opening and there is a trauma, trauma related difficulty in mouth opening or some kind of a muscle temporomandibular joint problem or the TMJ problem issue or a muscle spasms that is causing inability to open the mouth. In precancerous condition like oral submucus fibrosis, there is fibrosis of your muscles, so the bands of fibres are formed making it even more difficult, the elasticity reduces and making it more difficult to open the mouth and there are multiple other reasons and factors that lead too decreased mouth opening. So how we treat it depends on what is our problem the patient is facing. In case of extraction, and patient can’t open, we general ask them for hot water fermentation and give some exercises to open it in TMJ problems, ankylosis problems still we have some exercises to do, we have certain treatment to do and get them to bite properly and get them to bite corrected. In case of OSMF, oral submucus fibrosis, we have certain conditions and it starts from counselling and certain localised medications and application of gels and resulting in improvement of mouth opening. So when you have a difficulty in opening your mouth, visit your dentist and find out what the problem and get it solved at the very basic level.