One woman yawned so hard that her jaw was physically locked, sending her to the emergency room, where doctors had to manually close it.
Jenna Sinatra, 21, from New Jersey, suffered the freak accident this week, just days before her birthday, and documented her trip to the hospital in a now-viral TikTok video.
Doctors told him he dislocated his jaw, causing the joints responsible for opening and closing his mouth to lock in place. This prevented him from closing his mouth completely.
The injury, which lasted several hours, took four hours for doctors to repair by giving him muscle relaxant medication and “pushing” his jaw again.
“Only something like this would happen to me,” he wrote in the caption of the video, which has been viewed 7.4 million times.
Jenna Sinatra, 21, posted a series of videos on TikTok after her jaw fell open from yawning. It took the doctors four hours to close his mouth ‘manually’
Sinatra, an influencer with 2.3 million followers on TikTok, was left speechless just days before her 21st birthday.
Dr. Anthony Youn, a Michigan plastic surgeon, stitched together Sinatra’s video and described the phenomenon as “open lock,” which leaves the jaw “literally open.”
“This is very rare, but when it does occur, it often occurs after someone yawns a lot,” he said in his response, which garnered 3.2 million views.
In Ms. Sinatra’s case, her jaw was dislocated, which occurs when two bones in one joint separate.
In this case, the joints connecting Sinatra’s jaw and skull were separated.
It’s unclear exactly what caused Ms. Sinatra’s yawn to go wrong, but major risk factors include being double-jointed, grinding your teeth, or having arthritis.
The condition is medically known as TMJ disorder, and it affects the joints that connect your jaw to your skull, almost like sliding hinges that allow you to open and close your mouth.
While most people with this problem have lockjaw, which keeps the mouth closed, in “rare” cases, TMJ injuries can leave the mouth open.
An estimated five to 12 percent of Americans have had their jaw locked at some point, although it’s unclear how many have had it left open.
Previous jaw injuries, arthritis, and teeth grinding or clenching have been shown to increase the risk of TMJ disorders.
After several hours of home remedies, Ms. Sinatra finally had to go to the hospital, where doctors discovered that yawning dislocated her jaw.
Dr. Anthony Youn, a Michigan plastic surgeon, described the phenomenon as “gaping,” which typically occurs after yawning. He pointed out that his jaw could have been dislocated due to a TMJ disorder.
Dr. Youn said an open lock like Mrs. Sinatra’s is usually treated with muscle relaxant medications and “manual adjustments.”
Sinatra did not specify what medications he was given, but common muscle relaxants include carisoprodol (Soma), methocarbamol (Robaxin), and tizanidine (Zanaflex).
This may involve massaging the joints, applying heat or ice, loosening the muscles with injections, or using Botox. These help the joints loosen and become less stiff, allowing them to come back together.
Sinatra eventually recovered from the open lock, although she posted videos of her having to wear bandages around her entire head for her birthday dinner.