Tightening/Weird Sensation Side of Face

[ErinKC]

Hi friends. I haven’t really started panicking about this yet because my anxiety has been good lately, but concern is creeping in.

For the last several days I’ve had the strangest sensation on the left side of my face. Every few minutes (or sometimes hours) I’ll get this sensation like something is tightening up - almost like a muscle spasm, but I don’t feel any movement or twitching. Sometimes I can feel it in my sinuses - like some sinus movement.

I have TMJ and a messed up ear on this side, so I’m assuming it’s related to this, but I’ve never had this before and it won’t stop. The day before it started I ate a bunch of chips that did irritate my jaw, so I assumed it was that. But, I’ve been resting my jaw, tried ice, heat, ibiprophen, etc. and it remains. It just comes on randomly even when I’m just sitting and not moving my jaw.

Had anyone ever had anything like this? Thanks!

[Lucidite1]

Wow, I have exactly the same issue! Mine started about a week ago, also left side of the face. I noticed that it goes away when I'm busy and don't have time to think about it. Also, when I searched this forum, this seems to be a quite common anxiety symptom.

[MrLurcher]

Hi Erin, thought I'd reply seeing as you've kindly done on my thread.

About 4/5 years ago at the height of my health anxiety I went through a glut of weird symptoms. One episode I had was similar to yours. It came on suddenly, where my scalp and temples (just general top of the head area) felt like they were tightening or 'lifting' or 'squeezing'. This came in waves throughout the day, like waves of tightening or squeezing. This wasn't painful, so wasn't a tension headache, just a very odd sensation. I remember my doctor being completely vacant when trying to explain this strange sensation/feeling. This was on top of a number of issues that I was going to see about in a short space of time, and he probably thought I was mad! The only time it went away was when I went to bed and lay down.

To this day I dont know what it was, but it lasted around 1-2 weeks, and slowly faded away over a few days until I felt normal again. Very strange!

[ErinKC]

Thanks to both of you! It stopped as quickly as it had started! The day it stopped I also had a lot of sinus stuff, so I'm wondering if that was the root cause - but it could also just have been something totally random and out of the blue. But, thankfully it's gone now.