What's a locked jaw?

Answer 1

Lockjaw, also known as Tetanus, is a serious but preventable disease that affects the body's muscles and nerves. It typically arises from a skin wound that becomes contaminated by a bacterium called Clostridium tetani, which is often found in soil.

Once the bacteria are in the body, they produce a neurotoxin (a protein that acts as a poison to the body's nervous system) known as tetanospasmin that causes muscle spasms. The toxin first affects nerves controlling the muscles near the wound. It can also travel to other parts of the body through the bloodstream and lymph system. As it circulates more widely, the toxin interferes with the normal activity of nerves throughout the body, leading to generalized muscle spasms. Without treatment, tetanus can be fatal.

Answer 2

I don't remember where I saw it, or how much truth there is to it, but I remember reading somewhere that it kinda sorta came from the old time dogmen. When two dogs would get a hold on each other in the pit, it's believed that they called this a "lock" so to speak. Supposedly the term was seriously twisted through the years. If you think about it, that kinda makes sense, and would explain how people got their drive, tenacity, etc... confused with their jaws actually LOCKING. I'd like to know where people get things like "they have a 1600 psi bite force", too. I have yet to see solid proof of that one. I'd also like to see proof that just because a dog's game, it's human aggressive, too. Never really understood where people made THAT connection either. ETA @ Becka (sorry if I spelled that wrong), but I have a few issues with your comment, LOL!!!: "A pit bulls jaws do not "lock" but rather the shape and contour of their sharp teeth" A pit bulls teeth are no sharper then that of any dog. And really, a well cared for dogs teeth aren't all that SHARP anyway, and are actually kinda blunt at the end. "make for a very strong hold once they bite down into flesh. Their teeth interlock in such a way that you can not just pull them off of flesh like any other breed of dog." Okay, here's a concept: If the dog has bitten down on flesh, then the flesh is between the teeth. Therefore, the teeth CANNOT "interlock" at all. If they could, it wouldn't matter because the flesh would pretty much be removed anyway. Teeth have to touch to interlock, don't they? Can YOUR teeth "interlock" at all if there's something between them? Didn't think so. Guess what, neither can ANY BREED OF DOG's teeth. "If you were to try this it would rip out the chunk of flesh that the dog is holding on to." You do realize that ANY breed of dog will rip off a part of the flesh it's holding onto if they're broken the skin if some random jackass attempts to PULL the dog off, yeah? ANY DOG WITH TEETH CAN TEAR FLESH. Period. Maybe you should go back to school, yeah?

Answer 3

Lock jaw is another name for tetanus. Its an infection that causes tensing of the muscles including the ones of mastication that causes the jaw to chomp.

Another form of lock jaw comes from TMJ (temporal mandibular joint) disfunction. This arises from many different causes and it causes problems such as click when the jaw is opened. It can get bad enough that the jaw is swollen or frozen shut.

Answer 4

LOCK JAW is actually tetnus.
The jaw locks and you cant open your mouth.

Answer 5

a pathological condition in which the mouth is held shut by sustained spasm of the masseter (jaw) muscle, often observed in cases of tetanus

Answer 6

It is something you hope your mother in law gets, but never does. (It's a joke people, don't snivel.)

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetanus

Answer 8

something I get when I take too much XTC