It’s finals week- and not just any old finals, but the finals right before summer, so I have to move out on Friday. I’m busy and stressed and utterly screwed.
So of course the right side of my jaw decides that it’s time to hurt for no fucking reason. At first it was just my ear that hurt, so I thought, “Oh, must have gotten a really gross pimple that’s making it sore,” but then I yawned. Bad fucking idea. Even with ibuprofen and a hot bath my face still feels like pain.
So screw you, TMJ. You’re the worst body part I’ve ever had the displeasure of having. If you don’t straighten up and fly right… damnit, there’s no decent way to threaten a body part.
I’ve suffered with TMJD for the past 10 years, and for the most part it’s fine if I keep track of it.
Just a few weeks ago I had such bad pain (and different pain) that I went to the regular doctor complaining of an earache, just to get laughed at and have them tell me there’s no infection in there. Then I went to my “jaw doctor” and he was concerned but flummoxed by the location of the pain (not normal clenching pain spot) and told me the sad news that there was nothing HE could do…I was the only one who could relax it enough to make the pain go away. Only I couldn’t actually relax it because I didn’t even know I was NOT relaxing it.
A few days later, my stressful month was over and my ear/jaw felt fine. Completely back to normal. I didn’t even change anything except I had less stress.
Every time I see this thread, I have to read the title twice to get it right.
Anyway, I’m sorry about your TMJD. I have it myself, fortunately only very slightly. It usually only acts up if I’m eating a lot of very crunchy or chewy food, or if I’ve spent a long time mumble mumble my boyfriend.
My mom sent me long and overly complex directions on how to massage some Tiger Balm into the jaw; I did the easiest stuff (the bits that didn’t require looking up jaw diagrams, which she told me to do) and a bit of the more complicated things. So my jaw doesn’t hurt quite so bad now.
I ate a lot of big foods (double-meat pitas, that sort of thing, that require a wide-open mouth) and tortilla chips lately, and it’s finals, so I’m thinking this was a combination of overworking my jaw and stress.
(I didn’t even think how easily my title could be misread.)
Have you tried Aleve and ice? (Don’t chew the ice, silly - that’ll make it worse! Ice pack )
I don’t know if you have time, with finals and all, but laying down on your back with a nice soft pillow, and moving your head until everything feels juuuuust right…then staying there for a while…helps me relax the jaw muscle.
And don’t eat big foods! (Says the club sandwich lover. sigh)
This must be going around. My wife has been complaining of the same thing for the last month, right after she had her first two partial crowns installed. After her dentist wasn’t able to find a bite problem with her teeth, she was sent to a doctor to check for TMJ. That doctor said she doesn’t have TMJ either, and that it could be a bite problem with the other side of her mouth… Off to another dentist this week! Yippee…
I’m not a big ice person; it usually tenses my muscles more than relaxes them. But I have been taking ibuprofen more often than I normally remember too.
One of my supervisors at work decided to give me the terrifying idea that I might have an ear infection, which I sadly could totally believe. (I have three “student supervisors” and they’re all younger than me, bah, at least all the managers are actual adults)
If the ibuprofen I’m about to take, combined with the Tiger Balm I’ve just reapplied, doesn’t fix me up within an hour, I’m going over to the health center to see if it is an infection. God, I hope not.
Usually if it is my TMJ, it goes away in at most two days, and never gets worse than how it starts/peaks about two hours in. If it’s an ear infection, it could get worse before it gets better, and knowing the modern no-antibiotics-unless-it’s-actually-bacteria stance,* I will get no yummy berry flavored antibiotic goo-drink to kill it dead.
I miss that berry flavored stuff. It was sort of pink and was oh-so-smooth. But I haven’t had any in 15 years.
Took three ibuprofen, a hot shower and a five hour nap; it still hurts but it’s more in my jaw. So I think I’ll head to the health center after my calculus final tomorrow. Unless the painkillers wear off at 2 in the morning (usually ibu lasts me 8 hours, tops) and this hurts even worse than before. Then I’ll just hope to god the after-hours care lady doesn’t think I’m being weird for coming in with a jaw ache at 2 am.
*Which I am all for, otherwise. I just want my goo.
Yea, i feel you. I have a splint for my jaw, so when it hurts, all i have to do is wear it. The problem is that it makes it look like i have a dip in and i have a lisp. So i hate to wear it. But i understand the pain. Mine gets bad enough that i have to take muscles relaxers to eat. They tried sawing on my teeth to help, but it hurt so bad that i just told them to stop and i would wear the splint. I lied. Oh Well.
)