What could cause one-sided jaw stiffness and clicking in the morning?

[RyanS]

Creating good physics concept explanations requires adapting to your audience's background and interests. How do you approach explaining the same physics concept to different audiences, like middle school students, undergraduate physics majors, or curious adults without science backgrounds? What analogies or visualizations have you found most effective?

[Edward_T]

For the last few mornings, I’ve woken up with a really stiff and painful jaw on one side, and I can hear a distinct clicking sound when I open my mouth wide to yawn. It’s making it hard to eat my usual breakfast.

[Aubrey.M]

That sounds rough. Mornings like that threw off my day too. I’ve woken up with a stiff joint on one side with a click when yawning, and soft foods helped me get through breakfast.

[JacobUG]

I tried a warm compress on the sore side for 10 minutes, then did tiny opening moves and stuck to soup and mashed foods for a few days. It eased a bit when I slowed down.

[JosephL]

Are you sure it’s the joint itself and not a toothache or sinus pressure?

[Grace20]

I’m not a clinician, but sometimes it’s from clenching or grinding at night. It might fade, or it could linger.

[Luke14]

Once I fiddled with sleep setup—pillow height, wind-down routine. The mornings got easier after those changes, though the noise still showed up now and then.

[Jerry_T]

If it starts to lock up or you can’t open wide, or you see swelling, that’s a sign to get checked sooner rather than later.