AN INFLUENCER yawned so hard her jaw got locked in place – with her mouth wide open.
Jenna Sinatra, 21, from New Jersey, suffered the jaw-dropping accident just days before her birthday.
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In a now viral series of videos, she documented herself trying to convince her parents something was wrong and her subsequent trip to hospital, where doctors “shoved [her] jaw back together”.
Her permanently surprised expression had viewers in stitches, while others said the videos had unlocked a new fear.
Just days before her 21st birthday, Jenna yawned – a little too hard it seems – and managed to lock her jaw, leaving her mouth agape.
Hospital staff told her the force of her yawn had dislocated her jaw, locking it in place.
One even commented: “I’ve never seen that before.”
Over the course of four hours, Jenna had her jaw examined and X-rayed, all the while giggling through the pain and drooling from her wide-open mouth.
Doctors then gave her muscle relaxants before manually putting her jaw back into its usual position.
“I cannot believe this happened,” she wrote in the caption of her TikTok video, which has been viewed 10.4 million times.
She shared an update video showing her face comically wrapped in bandages.
“Post lost of meds and four doctors shoving my jaw back together.”
On top of it all, Jenna was told that her ordeal might happen again.
“New fear unlocked,” one viewer wrote.
Others shared their own experiences with lockjaw, with one saying: “Omg this happened to me once while yawning and I panicked so hard I smacked it back into place.”
“I get lockjaw when I yawn it only lasts a few seconds but I live in constant fear that my muscles just aren’t gonna give my jaw back,” another wrote.
Dr Anthony Youn, a plastic surgeon in Michigan, stitched Jenna’s video and described her jaw mishap as an “open lock, where your jaw literally is stuck open”.
“This is very rare, but when it occurs it often happens if somebody does a big yawn.
“One main cause of this is disclocation of the jaw when you’ve got TMJ problems and usually it’s treated by relaxation followed by manual adjustment.”
According to Cleveland Clinic, symptoms of a dislocated jaw include:
- Not being able to close your mouth
- Your jaw looking lopsided
- Looking as if you’ve suddenly developed an open bite, where your upper and lower teeth don’t meet in a normal position
“You could dislocate your jaw while doing everyday activities such as yawning widely, laughing or biting into an oversized sandwich,” it added.
“You also may dislocate your jaw if someone or something hits your jaw.”
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