Why Your Jaw Aches When You Catch a Cold—And What's Really Happening

When you catch a cold, jaw pain happens because your body's immune system releases inflammatory chemicals that affect the jaw joint, surrounding muscles, and nearby structures like the sinuses and lymph nodes. This is more common than you might think, affecting people of all ages, and understanding why it happens can help you manage the discomfort more effectively.

Why Does Your Immune System Cause Jaw Pain During a Cold?

When a virus enters your body, your immune system springs into action. Over 200 different viruses can cause the common cold, with rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, and adenoviruses being the most common culprits. Your body doesn't just passively wait for the virus to pass—it actively fights back by releasing powerful chemical messengers.

During this immune response, your body releases inflammatory chemicals called cytokines and chemokines. These chemicals help coordinate your immune system's attack on the virus, but they also increase blood flow to affected areas and trigger inflammation. This inflammation can spread to unexpected places, including your jaw. The temporomandibular joint (TMJ)—the hinge joint that connects your jawbone to your skull—and the muscles surrounding it become inflamed, leading to pain and stiffness.

The connection between your immune response and jaw pain becomes even clearer when you understand what's happening at a cellular level. Your immune system activates specialized cells like T-cells and macrophages to eliminate infected cells. While this is essential for fighting off the infection, the collateral inflammation can affect structures far from the initial infection site.

What Specific Factors Trigger Jaw Pain When You're Sick?

Jaw pain during a cold isn't caused by just one thing—several interconnected factors work together to create discomfort:

• Sinusitis and Sinus Pressure: The sinuses are air-filled spaces in your face lined with mucous membranes that become inflamed during a cold. The maxillary sinuses sit directly near your upper teeth and jaw, and when they fill with fluid and become pressurized, that pain radiates downward to your jaw.
• Swollen Lymph Nodes: Lymph nodes throughout your neck and under your jaw swell as they work to filter out the virus and fight the infection. The submandibular nodes sit directly under your jaw, and the cervical nodes run along your neck, so their swelling causes direct tenderness and pain in the jaw area.
• TMJ Inflammation: The temporomandibular joint and its surrounding muscles become inflamed due to the immune response, and coughing—a common cold symptom—strains these muscles further, intensifying the pain.
• Referred Pain from Nearby Structures: The nerves serving your sinuses and jaw are located close together, so inflammation in one area can cause pain to be felt in another location, a phenomenon called referred pain.

How Do Swollen Lymph Nodes and Sinus Pressure Make Jaw Pain Worse?

Your lymph nodes are part of your immune system's frontline defense. When you have a cold, these nodes swell as they work to remove the virus from your body. This swelling is actually a sign that your immune system is doing its job, but it comes with a price: jaw pain and tenderness.

The anatomical proximity of these structures matters tremendously. The submandibular lymph nodes sit directly beneath your jaw, so their swelling causes pain or tenderness under the jaw and can make swallowing difficult. Meanwhile, the cervical lymph nodes in your neck can cause neck pain or stiffness, which radiates upward to affect your jaw.

Sinus inflammation creates a different but equally uncomfortable problem. When your sinuses become inflamed during a cold, they fill with fluid and pressure builds up inside these enclosed spaces. This increased pressure strains the nerves and muscles around your jaw, leading to a dull ache or sharp stabbing pain depending on the severity of the inflammation. Even simple actions like blowing your nose can worsen the pain by increasing sinus pressure further.

The jaw itself is a complex structure that includes multiple components working together. The temporomandibular joint is a synovial hinge joint—meaning it's designed for smooth, fluid movement—that allows you to open and close your mouth. When inflammation affects this joint and its surrounding muscles and ligaments, even basic functions like chewing and speaking become uncomfortable.

Understanding these interconnected causes helps explain why jaw pain during a cold can feel so persistent. It's not just one problem—it's your immune system's inflammatory response affecting multiple structures in your head and neck simultaneously. By recognizing what's happening in your body, you can take targeted steps to address the inflammation and reduce jaw muscle strain, ultimately easing the discomfort caused by your cold.