By Dr. Liyan Massaband, D.M.D., M.P.H. | Medically Reviewed | Updated August 2026
Jaw pain on one side is usually caused by a TMJ (jaw joint) problem, a dental issue like a cavity or abscess, muscle tension from clenching, or less often, a sinus infection, swollen lymph node, or nerve condition. The exact cause depends on where the pain sits and what makes it worse, which this guide walks through below.
Experiencing jaw pain isolated to just one side of your face can be both puzzling and concerning. Unlike bilateral pain that affects both sides equally, unilateral jaw discomfort often signals specific problems requiring targeted attention and treatment. The jaw is a complex structure involving bones, joints, muscles, nerves, teeth, and surrounding tissues, any of which can become the source of one-sided pain. Understanding the potential causes of unilateral jaw pain, recognizing accompanying symptoms that indicate the underlying problem, and knowing when to seek professional care helps you address the issue effectively before it worsens or becomes chronic.
Table of Contents
Temporomandibular Joint Disorders (TMJ/TMD)
The temporomandibular joint connects your lower jaw to your skull, and problems with this joint represent one of the most common causes of unilateral jaw pain. According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are actually a group of more than 30 conditions that affect the jaw joint and the muscles that control jaw movement — and because you have one TMJ on each side of your face, these disorders very often show up as one-sided pain.
Understanding TMJ Anatomy and Function
The temporomandibular joint is actually one of the most complex joints in your body, functioning as both a hinge and a sliding mechanism that allows your jaw to move up and down, side to side, and forward and backward. A small disc of cartilage sits between the ball and socket portions of the joint, cushioning the bones and allowing smooth movement. Muscles surrounding the joint control jaw movement and work constantly during talking, chewing, and swallowing. Because you have a TMJ on each side of your face, problems can develop in one joint while the other remains healthy, causing distinctly one-sided pain. TMJ disorders, collectively called TMD, involve dysfunction or damage to the joint, disc, surrounding muscles, or ligaments.
TMJ Symptoms Beyond Pain
TMJ disorders cause various symptoms beyond just jaw pain, helping differentiate them from other conditions. You might experience clicking, popping, or grinding sounds when opening or closing your mouth, which can occur on the affected side specifically. Limited jaw movement or difficulty opening your mouth fully often accompanies TMJ pain. The joint might feel like it’s locking or catching during movement, temporarily preventing smooth motion. Pain often radiates beyond the jaw itself to your ear, temple, neck, or shoulder on the affected side. Headaches, particularly tension-type headaches concentrated around the temples, frequently accompany TMJ disorders. Some people notice their jaw deviates to one side when opening, or that their bite feels different, with teeth not fitting together quite right.
TMJ Causes and Risk Factors
Various factors contribute to TMJ disorder development, often combining to create dysfunction. Teeth grinding or clenching (bruxism), particularly during sleep, places enormous stress on the TMJ and surrounding muscles, commonly causing unilateral problems if you favor one side. Injury or trauma to the jaw from accidents, falls, or blows to the face can damage one TMJ specifically. Arthritis can affect temporomandibular joints just like other joints in your body, causing inflammation and pain. Stress leads to muscle tension and unconscious clenching that stresses the TMJ. Misaligned teeth or bite problems create uneven forces on the joints. Some people have structural problems with the joint disc or congenital abnormalities affecting one side more than the other. If you recognize these symptoms, our TMJ/TMD Treatment team in Burbank can evaluate your jaw and recommend a treatment plan, from a custom nightguard to more advanced therapy.
Dental Problems Causing Unilateral Pain
Various dental issues can cause jaw pain that appears isolated to one side, often because the problematic tooth or teeth are located on that side. Recognizing dental origins of jaw pain ensures appropriate dental treatment rather than mistakenly addressing it as a joint or muscle problem.
Tooth Decay and Abscesses
Advanced tooth decay creating cavities deep enough to reach the tooth’s nerve causes pain that radiates from the affected tooth throughout the jaw on that side. The pain typically worsens with chewing, consuming hot or cold foods, or when pressure is applied to the tooth. Dental abscesses — infections at a tooth’s root or in the surrounding gum — cause severe, throbbing pain that can radiate extensively throughout the jaw, ear, and side of the face. Abscesses represent dental emergencies requiring immediate treatment to prevent the infection from spreading to other areas of your head, neck, or even bloodstream. If you suspect an abscess based on severe, unrelenting pain accompanied by fever, facial swelling, or foul taste in your mouth, contact Emergency Dental Care in Burbank, CA immediately rather than waiting for a regular appointment. Once the infection is controlled, our Restorative Dentistry services can repair the damaged tooth.
Gum Disease and Periodontal Infections
Advanced gum disease affecting teeth on one side of your mouth can cause jaw pain in that area. Periodontitis creates inflammation and infection in the tissues and bone supporting your teeth, leading to deep, aching pain that seems to emanate from the jaw itself rather than specific teeth. Localized periodontal abscesses can develop, creating swelling, tenderness, and pain concentrated on one side. Gum infections sometimes feel like jaw pain because the discomfort radiates through the entire area rather than remaining confined to the gum line. If you notice red, swollen, bleeding gums along with jaw pain, periodontal disease may be the culprit.
Wisdom Teeth Problems
Impacted wisdom teeth, third molars that don’t have enough room to emerge properly, frequently cause unilateral jaw pain since these teeth are located at the far back corners of your mouth. When a wisdom tooth tries to erupt without adequate space, it can push against adjacent teeth, grow at awkward angles, or partially emerge and trap food and bacteria under a flap of gum tissue. These problems create pain, swelling, and sometimes infection affecting the entire side of your jaw where the problematic wisdom tooth is located. The pain may come and go, worsening when the tooth tries to erupt or when infection develops. Jaw stiffness on the affected side often accompanies wisdom tooth pain, making it difficult to open your mouth fully. Our Extractions and Preservation team can evaluate whether removal is the right next step.
Muscle-Related Jaw Pain
Muscles that control jaw movement can become strained, fatigued, or develop trigger points that cause unilateral jaw pain. Understanding muscle-related causes helps you identify whether your pain originates from muscular rather than joint or dental issues.
Muscle Strain and Overuse
The muscles that close your jaw (masseter and temporalis muscles) and those that open it can become strained from overuse, just like muscles elsewhere in your body. Chewing gum excessively, eating very tough or chewy foods, or habitually chewing on one side of your mouth preferentially can strain muscles on that side. Holding your mouth in unusual positions for extended periods, during lengthy dental procedures, playing wind instruments, or certain work tasks, can fatigue jaw muscles on one side. Poor posture, particularly forward head position or holding a phone between your shoulder and ear on one side, creates muscle imbalances that stress jaw muscles asymmetrically. The resulting pain feels achy and worsens with jaw movement or muscle palpation.
Myofascial Pain and Trigger Points
Myofascial pain syndrome involves trigger points, hyperirritable spots in muscles that create referred pain patterns. Trigger points in jaw muscles commonly refer pain throughout one side of the face, jaw, and even into the neck and head. These trigger points develop from chronic muscle tension, stress-related clenching, or muscle overuse. The pain pattern can be confusing because the trigger point location might not be where you feel the most pain, pressing on your masseter muscle might create pain that shoots into your jaw and temple. Myofascial pain often responds well to physical therapy, massage, stretching, and stress reduction, differing from dental or joint problems that require different interventions.
Tension From Stress and Anxiety
Psychological stress manifests physically through muscle tension, and jaw muscles are particularly vulnerable to stress-related clenching and tension. Many people unconsciously clench their jaw or grind their teeth when stressed, anxious, or concentrating intensely, often favoring one side. This chronic tension creates sustained muscle contraction that leads to fatigue, soreness, and pain. You might not realize you’re clenching until you pay deliberate attention to your jaw position, or you might wake with jaw soreness indicating nighttime clenching. Addressing underlying stress through relaxation techniques, therapy, or stress management strategies often significantly improves muscle-related jaw pain.
Other Medical Conditions Causing Jaw Pain
Beyond dental and joint problems, various medical conditions can cause unilateral jaw pain that might initially seem dental in origin but actually reflects systemic or neurological issues requiring different treatment approaches.
Trigeminal Neuralgia
Trigeminal neuralgia is a chronic pain condition affecting the trigeminal nerve, which carries sensation from your face to your brain. This condition causes sudden, severe, electric shock-like pain on one side of the face, often triggered by everyday activities like eating, talking, brushing teeth, or even light touch to the face. The pain episodes last from seconds to minutes but can occur repeatedly throughout the day. This condition differs markedly from dental pain in its sudden, shooting nature and specific triggers, requiring neurological rather than dental treatment.
Sinus Infections and Sinusitis
Your maxillary sinuses sit above your upper back teeth, and sinus infections or inflammation can create pain that radiates into your upper jaw on the affected side. Sinusitis-related jaw pain typically accompanies other sinus symptoms including nasal congestion, facial pressure, thick nasal discharge, reduced sense of smell, and tenderness over the sinus area. The pain often worsens when bending forward or lying down. Your upper teeth on the affected side might feel tender or painful, leading to confusion about whether the problem is dental or sinus-related. Sinus-related jaw pain typically improves once the sinus infection resolves with appropriate treatment.
Salivary Gland Problems
Salivary gland infections, blockages, or stones can cause pain on one side of your jaw, particularly near the angle of your jaw or under your tongue where major salivary glands are located. Blocked salivary ducts prevent saliva from draining properly, causing the gland to swell and create pain that worsens during eating when saliva production increases. Infections of the salivary glands cause pain, swelling, fever, and sometimes pus discharge into your mouth. While less common than dental or TMJ causes, salivary gland problems are worth considering for unexplained unilateral jaw pain, particularly if the pain intensifies during meals.
Jaw Pain When Pressing Under the Jaw
If your jaw only hurts when you touch or press underneath it, rather than when chewing or opening your mouth, the cause is often different from TMJ or a toothache.
Swollen lymph nodes are the most common reason. A cluster of small lymph nodes sits just beneath the jawbone on each side, and when your body fights an infection nearby, a sore throat, a cold, an ear infection, or a dental infection — these nodes fill with immune cells and swell. They feel tender, firm, and roughly pea-sized, and tenderness usually settles within one to two weeks as the underlying infection clears.
Salivary stones (sialolithiasis) are another cause. Minerals in saliva can crystallize into small, hard deposits that block the duct leading from a salivary gland to the mouth. The hallmark sign is pain and swelling under the jaw that gets noticeably worse right when you start eating, because eating triggers saliva production against a blocked duct.
If a lump under your jaw is growing, hard, or doesn’t go away within two to three weeks, or if pressing causes sharp rather than tender pain, it’s worth having it examined rather than waiting it out.
Injury and Trauma
Physical injury to one side of your jaw from accidents, impacts, or other trauma creates obvious unilateral pain but can also cause delayed symptoms that emerge days after the initial injury as inflammation develops.
Acute Injuries and Fractures
Direct blows to the jaw from falls, vehicle accidents, sports injuries, or physical altercations can fracture jaw bones, dislocate the TMJ, or damage surrounding soft tissues. Fractures cause severe pain, swelling, bruising, difficulty or inability to open or close your mouth properly, numbness in your lower lip or chin, loose or broken teeth, and misalignment of your bite. Any suspected jaw fracture requires immediate medical evaluation and treatment to ensure proper healing.
Whiplash and Indirect Trauma
Vehicle accidents causing whiplash can injure your jaw even without direct impact to your face. The sudden jerking motion can strain jaw muscles, damage TMJ structures, or create muscle spasms affecting one side. Pain from whiplash-related jaw injury may not appear immediately but develops hours or days after the accident as inflammation increases. If you develop jaw pain following any accident involving sudden head or neck movement, inform healthcare providers about the accident timing to help them identify the connection.
Repetitive Strain and Chronic Microtrauma
Repeated minor stress to your jaw from habits like pen chewing, nail biting, or constantly chewing on one side creates cumulative microtrauma that eventually manifests as pain. While each individual action seems insignificant, the cumulative effect over weeks or months can damage joints, strain muscles, and create chronic pain. Identifying and modifying these habits becomes essential for resolving the resulting pain.
When to Seek Professional Care
Urgent Warning Signs
Some symptoms accompanying jaw pain indicate serious conditions requiring immediate attention. Seek emergency care if you experience severe, unrelenting pain not controlled by over-the-counter medications, significant swelling of your face, jaw, or neck, fever above 101°F, difficulty swallowing or breathing, inability to open or close your mouth, or obvious jaw deformity. Chest pain, left arm pain, or shortness of breath accompanying jaw pain on the left side could indicate a cardiac event and requires emergency evaluation — call 911 rather than waiting.
Non-Emergency Professional Evaluation
Even without urgent symptoms, persistent or recurrent jaw pain warrants professional evaluation. Schedule an appointment if your jaw pain persists beyond a few days without improvement, keeps returning, progressively worsens, interferes with eating, speaking, or sleeping, or comes with clicking, locking, or limited movement.
Choosing the Right Professional
Start with your dentist for jaw pain accompanied by tooth sensitivity, obvious dental problems, or recent dental work. See your physician for jaw pain with sinus symptoms or suspicion of systemic conditions like arthritis. Consult an oral surgeon for suspected jaw fractures or impacted wisdom teeth. See a neurologist for pain with electric shock-like quality or facial numbness. Most cases begin with dental evaluation, as dentists commonly diagnose and treat, or appropriately refer, jaw pain conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the right side of my jaw hurt specifically?
Right-sided jaw pain most often points to a problem localized on that side, a TMJ issue in the right joint, a cavity or infection in a right-side tooth, or muscle strain from chewing predominantly on that side. The exact cause depends on whether the pain worsens with chewing (often dental), opening your mouth (often TMJ), or touch under the jaw (often a lymph node or gland).
Why does the left side of my jaw hurt?
Left-sided jaw pain has the same common causes as the right side, TMJ, dental issues, muscle tension, but left-side jaw pain paired with chest tightness, arm pain, sweating, or shortness of breath needs emergency evaluation, since it can signal a cardiac event.
Why does my jaw hurt on one side when I open my mouth wide?
Pain specifically triggered by opening wide usually points to the TMJ, either disc displacement, joint inflammation, or a muscle that’s overworked on that side. Clicking or a catching sensation while opening supports a TMJ cause.
What does it mean if my jaw hurts when I press underneath it?
This pattern usually points away from the jaw joint or teeth and toward a swollen lymph node or a salivary gland/stone issue, since pressing directly over these structures, not chewing or opening, is what triggers the pain.
Is one-sided jaw pain an emergency?
Most cases aren’t emergencies. It becomes one if it’s accompanied by chest pain, arm pain, or shortness of breath (possible cardiac event), a high fever with facial swelling (possible spreading infection), or an inability to open your mouth or breathe normally.
Conclusion
Jaw pain affecting only one side of your face can result from numerous causes including TMJ disorders, dental problems like cavities and abscesses, muscle strain from stress or overuse, swollen lymph nodes or salivary gland issues, medical conditions like trigeminal neuralgia or sinus infections, or injury and trauma. Identifying the specific cause requires attention to accompanying symptoms, pain characteristics, and when the pain occurs or worsens. While some jaw pain resolves with home care, persistent or severe pain requires professional evaluation. For expert evaluation of your one-sided jaw pain, consult with an experienced Dentist in Burbank, CA who can provide comprehensive examination, appropriate imaging, and skilled care.
