I just joined ehealth so here's my story:

I was 21 and I was sleeping over at my cousin's house in a sleeping bag on the hardwood floor. I was sleeping on my side so when I woke up, I realized I couldn't open my jaw. I could only open it about an inch. About an 20 mins later, it worked itself out and I was able to use my jaw normally. This was the first incident of this happening. The next time this happened was approx 8 months later when I woke up one day (on my bed) and again, could only open my mouth a bit. An hour later, it worked itself out again. Since then, it started happening more and more frequently and each episode would last longer. I was 23 when this happened again (probably the 5th or 6th time since the first time) and I wasn't able to fully open my jaw for 2 weeks straight until I popped it open manually. But as you would've guessed, I had another episode shortly after that has lasted almost 2 years until this day (I'm 25).

So this is what I get. Each morning when I wake up, my jaw is locked closed only on my left side and I can only open it about 1 inch. What I do is that I move my lower jaw forward and then open my mouth. I only use my jaw muscles to open my mouth, no hands or anything. When I do this I hear a loud pop sound inside my head. To an outsider, it sounds like knocking your knuckle against a wooden desk. This pop causes my jaw to unlock. Once my jaw is popped open, I try not to close my jaw tight so I keep it slightly open for 30 mins or so. After that, I can use my jaw regularly for the rest of the day until the next morning. Then I repeat this cycle. I've been doing this for the past 2 years. During the daytime, I can eat normal foods and use my jaw normally. But after 2 years, I can sense that my left side is "weaker" than my right side. Sometimes when I chew, I'm afraid my left jaw might catch and lock itself (hasn't happened yet) so I try to chew on my stronger right jaw.

I've seen an oral specialist before, and he said there's not much he can do because I experience no pain at all (thank goodness). So it is a moderate inconvenience at the moment. I am nearing the end of my orthodontic treatment to correct my bite. Even though my teeth are pretty much aligned now, I am still experiencing this problem.

So I'm wondering if I should still see more doctors to get this treated. I have no pain, no headaches, no ear ringing, just the annoyance of popping my jaw open every morning. But I am afraid that continually doing this will do damage to my TMJ or maybe wear it out.