TMJ (bleah)
Currently, I can't yawn or open my mouth wide without nasty pain along the right side of my jawline. This has happened before, usually for a couple of days at a stretch, and it hasn't been any fun previously, either.
Years ago I mentioned to my dentist that more than a few sleepover-guests had commented on my occasional habit of clicking my teeth in my sleep. (not grinding, mind you, but clicking.) I was expecting him to fit me with a night guard, but instead he looked at me seriously and said:
You know, we could cast your teeth and make you a night guard and probably charge you a good number of hundreds of dollars for it, and it wouldn't really solve your problem. If you want to fix what's going on on the front of your head (and here he gestured at my face), you need to fix what's going on inside your head. (here he gestured at my brain.)
Good advice, and somewhat startling to hear a medical professional actually discouraging a costly procedure; but hard to implement all the time. (And with some self-induced stress of late, particularly hard.) So no bagels for me for a couple of days (which won't be hard, since I haven't had a bagel in over a year), and some increased attention to the things weighing on me, and with any luck, I'll be yawning without wincing soon.
June 19th, 2006 at 10:07 am
If that were my dentist, I probably would’ve strangled him.
Stress management helps a lot, but sometimes I still want a bite guard…
June 19th, 2006 at 11:01 am
I’d been having some ear pain the last few years. I asked a doctor about it who then looked at my ear and said it was fine. Last month, after a particularly bad episode, I did some searches and found stuff that said it may be “referred pain” from my jaw/TMJ. In fact, the ear pain I was having was right next to the jaw joint. So, the next time I got it, I started massaging my jaw and temples and it went away pretty fast. But, since then, my jaw now bugs be sometimes. So, I seem to have traded symptoms. But, it also shows how psychological it is for me.
I found this site useful:
http://www.tmj.org/
They basically say that TMJ goes away and most treatments for it don’t work that well. They warn against doing anything that’s invasive or permanent in nature. So, I’ve been just trying not to worry about it, telling myself it will go away. And, it mostly has. Except, I just noticed it again when I read this!
June 19th, 2006 at 11:09 am
Yah, in the past it’s pretty much gone away of its own accord. I’m taking a little ibuprofen, too.
L: I suspect I’d be aggravated if a healthcare provider counselled against something I knew I needed, but in this case, his reasoning made sense to me and I wasn’t so sure of my rationale as to get annoyed. And as it turned out, he was right.