I am guessing that is what this is. I noticed the soreness 2 nights ago after some yawning. Then after growing in intensity it became very painful to use my left jaw muscle to chew. I've been eating very soft food and soup for the past 2 days. The pain is definitely in the muscle, and it feels like any other severe sprained muscle. I just never have heard of it happening to a jaw muscle from nothing more than yawning.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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Do you grind your teeth at night? The yawn could have just been the trigger not the cause.

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I've been told by my wife that I have on occasion. I don't have any noticeable wear on my teeth though. I do wake up occasionally from suddenly biting my tongue.

I recently strained my jaw not long ago.

My PT gave me some anterior neck exercises to do (to correct posterior imbalances) and the days following my jaw was wrecked. I could barely chew.

Been hanging out in the zoo too long and was expecting way different responses.

Where is the pain at? Might have irritated your temporomandibular joint.

Right at that joint. Put the pain is only when I use the muscle. If I manually move my mouth open and shut, it doesn't hurt.

TMJ?

I always thought dentists trying to sell mouth guards was a complete scam. But, I've been wearing the mouth guard at night for almost two years and I haven't had a TMJ occurrence since. Used to have flair ups once or twice a year (always triggered by some weird motion, like a yawn).

We treat joint TMJ dysfunction all the time. Can be acute or chronic and have a joint specific issue or myofascial cause. You can get acute trigger points /knots/strains in the muscle and or develop joint pain due to that or have actualy joint problem like osteoarthritis, deterioration or displacement of the joint disc etc.

In your case sounds myofascial. We usually will treat with low level laser therapy and then some kind of temporary splint or guard. Usually these are self limiting anyway and can heal in their own. Can take nsaids and rest and soft diet for home treatment.