I'm an oral surgeon and treat broken jaws. You might have one. Teeth not coming together is a major physical exam finding. You have one of two things. 1- a broken jaw or 2- tmj joint edema. #2 will settle over time, but you don't know which one it is without an X-ray. An easy thing to do is go get a panoramic X-ray. No need for an ER visit ct scan. Should be around $120 for the panoramic. Your dentist can take one, or just look up an oral surgeon.

Four days later my jaw is noticeably less sore and my teeth are pretty close to being back in alignment. Probably 90% and improving. I can open and close my mouth fully again without "popping" and it no longer hurts to chew. Monday night I was really suspecting a broken jaw, but at this point I'm thinking you're probably right with #2 . Granted I'm no Dr. but everything I've read indicates a broken jaw wouldn't improve this fast on its own.

That being said, as bad as this hurt I don't want to know what a broken jaw would feel like.

I just heard about this today. Girl was riding on the sidewalk going against traffic on that side of the street, passed a driveway, and a woman in an SUV was pulling out and looking to her left at oncoming traffic (cyclist approaching from the right). Never even saw the girl on the bike. Just an example of how dangerous sidewalk riding can be.

As an update, I seemed to be improving and then Sunday morning I woke up and my jaw was out of alignment again and hurting. I decided I'd better go get it checked out by a Dr. The x-rays didn't show any signs of a broken jaw, but the doctor did say my jaw was dislocated. Treatment is to avoid chewing and talking, take anti-inflammatories for a week to reduce the swelling and hopefully let my jaw slide back into position. If in a week things aren't better then I'll have to have a CT scan to see if something else is awry.

I had family in town on Saturday and spent the whole day talking and eating. I'm guessing I just over-did it and woke up sore on Sunday as a result.

You're very lucky it was so minor. Bruising hurts, but road rash is worse for me.

As motorcyclists say, there are two types of bikers, those who have fallen and those who haven't fallen yet. Or something like that.

Avoid chewing? I guess that's one way to lose weight! But seriously, that stinks. I had TMJ once, and I despised the liquid diet.