Difficulty opening mouth Assessment Questionnaire

Questions Your Doctor May Ask - and Why!

During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques to assess the symptom: Difficulty opening mouth. These will include a physical examination and possibly diagnostic tests. (Note: A physical exam is always done, diagnostic tests may or may not be performed depending on the suspected condition) Your doctor will ask several questions when assessing your condition. It is important to openly share any pertinent information to help your doctor make an accurate diagnosis.

It is also very important to bring an up-to-date list of all of your all medical conditions, medications including dosages, and names of numbers of any specialist you see.

Create your printable checklist by answering questions that your doctor may ask below:

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How long have you had difficulty opening your mouth?
Why: to determine if acute or chronic.
Has there been any injury or trauma to your jaw?
Why: may suggest broken jaw.
Is there a possibility of strychnine poisoning?
Why: symptoms may mimic tetanus.
Past medical history?
Why: e.g. rheumatoid arthritis may be a cause of rheumatoid arthritis; anxiety can predispose to teeth grinding and temporomandibular joint disorder.
Immunisation status?
Why: important if considering a diagnosis of mumps or tetanus.
Fever?
Why: may suggest tonsillitis, peritonsillar abscess (quinsy), mumps, upper respiratory tract infection, mononucleosis, tetanus.
Tooth pain?
Why: may suggest dental caries, tooth abscess, infected tooth sockets or impacted wisdom teeth. Tooth pain may be aggravated by cold (if the dental pulp is alive) or hot (if the dental pulp is dead).
Sore throat?
Why: may suggest tonsillitis, peritonsillar abscess (quinsy), mononucleosis.
Symptoms of tetanus?
Why: e.g. trismus (lockjaw) due to jaw muscle spasm, spasm of facial muscles produces a characteristic grinning expression, painful reflex spasms if the disease is severe. Eventually may have esophageal spasm causing difficulty in swallowing, urethral spasm causing urinary retention, arching of the neck and back muscles.
Bruxism ( grind teeth)?
Why: major risk factor for temporomandibular joint disorder.

Conditions listing medical symptoms: Difficulty opening mouth:

The following list of conditions have 'Difficulty opening mouth' or similar listed as a symptom in our database. This computer-generated list may be inaccurate or incomplete. Always seek prompt professional medical advice about the cause of any symptom.

Select from the following alphabetical view of conditions which include a symptom of Difficulty opening mouth or choose View All.

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