Officially diagnosed with TMD this morning after I’ve spent two days with a weird inability to shut my jaw completely.
On the plus side, going to the dentist and hearing one’s teeth are “gorgeous” makes me preen. On the negative side, I have to wait a week to get a mouth thingie that’s supposed to help with my jaw issues.
Anyone else in this boat? What are your experiences?
Well, I had no idea what TMD was. An explanation would have been helpful.
I developed that back in June. I woke up one morning and my jaw ached. After about a week it got to the point where the right side of my jaw would not close completely and it hurt like holy hell to open.
My dentist recommended heat and Aleeve. He also gave me cotton pieces to keep in my mouth in order to keep it slack (and allow the muscles to relax).
None of that worked. And trying to heat/ice my jaw was always tedious.
After a week of that (and 3 days missed at work- sleep was impossible with the pain) I bought a box of Icy Hot pads (the kind that stick to the skin). I wore one on my jaw all Saturday and Saturday night and Sunday. By Sunday night my jaw was back to normal (still ached a bit, but I could close it).
My jaw still aches from time to time, but nowhere near as bad as it was. Seriously, that was one of my most painful experiences.
So, give the pads a try. Just be careful to keep it well clear of your eyes.
Mine recommended ibuprofen and heat. But yours didn’t suggest a mouth piece that you are supposed to wear while sleeping? That was the first thing out of my dentist’s mouth.
Your progression sounds eerily similar to mine. Good luck.
I have a retainer already from my braces. Wearing that helped. My tongue also developed sores from my jaw being out of alignment. The retainer helped with that too.
My understanding is that a mouth guard is usually prescribed for TMD.
Seriously give the Icy-Hot a try. It worked wonders for me.
Thanks, sparky! I will try to get some soon.
I have this. After the initial flare that led to the diagnosis calmed down, it barely bothered me for a year (except for the ubiquitous clicking and popping) until I got my wisdom teeth out on Monday. Now, holy crap. I can only get my mouth open about a centimeter before it feels like the whole damn joint dislocates and there is a rock in the side of my face. It has been much worse than any pain from my teeth. So, beware oral surgery! Having your mouth open for a long time will really mess it up.
I have a bite splint but it was $1000 and insurance wouldn’t cover it (and I can’t get it in right now anyway). YMMV.
Here’s my long story.
I got diagnosed with this when I was 18, the first month of college. It sucked, I hurt a lot. It took about 3 weeks to get my first appliance made in which time I drank a lot of Ensure and smoked a lot of weed.
I took a lot of ibuprofen and ended up with an ulcer from that. Sucked.
I had to have all of my teeth re-aligned, which included a palate stretcher and braces. Also my doctor put some junk on my teeth to build them up in spots so I wouldn’t be able to clamp down fully. Basically fake teeth extensions.
I think the whole orthodontics thing went on for about 2 years until I was set. I got a night appliance to wear and also visited my doctor at least once a year for checkups.
None of this was covered by insurance. Not even awesome union insurance from Ford.
So some years later I started having regular pain again. I had been warned by my doctor that this would happen. My jaw had shifted over and now I was getting pain on the opposite side than I had in the beginning.
We did braces again. He gave me a discount since I was a repeat customer or something. Still not covered by insurance. I got a new nighttime appliance after the braces. He took the fake tooth stuff off my teeth (yeah like 6 years later) and built it in to the appliance.
At one time I had to take a ride on the TENS machine, to completely relax the muscles in my face, so he could do some work. Forget what that was for but it was nice.
I started seeing him as my regular dentist for cleanings so I could have TMJD checkups once a year without an extra trip. The TMJ part of the checkup would be the measuring of my bite and sticking his fingers in my ears while I opened and closed so he could feel my joints.
A year or so ago I was having problems with my back and jaw hurting when I woke up, so I went to get more work done. Then I found out my guy was retiring. NOOOO! He was really awesome. The woman who took over was new but very earnest. She got a totally new kind of night appliance made for me, which works ok but she kept getting it wrong until my original doctor got it settled for her. Hopefully I won’t need as much extensive work from her as I needed from him.
So it’s been 14 years, two sets of braces, palate stretching, three or four night appliances. Still have pain. Still can’t eat popcorn or taffy or even whole apples. I get tired chewing too long or talking too long. Yes, s***g ck is a problem 
The other night I fell asleep for 3 hours without my night appliance. Woke up feeling as if I had fallen out of a tree. Everything ached from the top of my head to the middle of my back, for an entire day.
I’ve gone to the doctor before complaining of an ear infection only to be told there is no infection. The issue is in my jaw. I need to de-stress.
What works for me on bad jaw days is ICE and rest. I lie still with my pillows exactly right and my jaw exactly right and put ice on my jaw and just wait it out. Aleve too, of course.
Relaxing the jaw helps. I like to hold a pen between my front teeth. Helps you not clench. It also helps to put the tip of your tongue on the top of your mouth and hold your teeth apart. It forces you to relax the muscles.
If you need any advice, feel free to PM me. Note that everyone has different degrees of TMJD and every doctor has a different cure.
Two very important things I learned in my research (and I did a lot of research, as I wrote an article about TMJD in college):
Good luck…I hope your ride is a smooth one.
Lordy, lordy, I’m sorry you’ve had to go through all of that.
My dentist asked if I was high strung. My hysterical laughter probably told him all he needed to know… 
BTW I want to add that I think I have an intermediate to severe case of TMJD. So don’t be scared that my experience will be the same as yours! Plenty of people get a simple night guard (even an over-the-counter one) and never have any more problems. Or simply de-stress and are ok. I just wanted to share my experience in case any of it was relevant.
When I was 17 I started having problems with my left TM joint. It would spontaneously develop a mechanical stop that prevented me from completely opening my jaw, and then after a few minutes, it spontaneously resolved. This happened two or three times, and then finally one time it happened and did not go away. Forcefully opening my jaw resulted in moderate pain combined with horrible, disturbing crushing sounds from that joint. I saw a doctor, and although I don’t remember hearing TMJD at the time, what he described sounds a lot like a specific variation of it, “disc displacement without reduction”: the cartilage protecting the load-bearing surface had permanently slipped from its usual location and ended up in a spot where it was interfering with the full range of motion of my jaw. Forcibly opening my jaw was crushing /destroying this cartilage over time, restoring my full range of motion within maybe a year or so.
A couple of years later the same sequence of events happened to my right TM joint, similarly resolving itself after about a year.
I’m now 41, and my jaw has been pretty much fine ever since, no major popping/clicking or pain. I can only assume cartilage or scar tissue regrew on the load-bearing surfaces of the two joints and thus restored normal pain-free function.
Yes! Almost 2 months ago now, I woke up one day with the inability to close my bite. It’s like my jaw shifted forward. Some days, the shift is further forward than others.
Correct me if I’m wrong: the problem is clearly with the joint.
Does anyone know anything about medical procedures or surgery that actually addresses curing the problem in the joint? I find that it’s hard to research this on the internet.
I’m really tired of talking to dentists about this. My dentist wants to do braces, crowns, etc. to remodel my teeth so my bite closes. But my bite changes daily, due to my shifting jaw, so this seems like just a way to line his pocket. Also, I have great, healthy teeth–I don’t want to mess with them. And some orthodontist already got $5000 in the 1980s and 90s to line them up this way. Now the dentist says they’re all wrong and need to be changed. :dubious:
ZipperJJ, why do you advise against surgery? I want this cured, pronto. What’s the downside?
Beware: my dentist charges $1500+ for this appliance, but freely admits that it will NOT fix the malocclusion, only the discomfort. In fact, he says it sometimes makes the malocclusion worse.
QN, my understanding, and Zipper will likely have a much greater understanding, is that the joint needs to have a chance to relax and heal rather than have permanent mucking around done. That’s why the night appliances are an early step, to keep the jaw from getting so stressed.
I’m so sorry you’ve been dealing with this for so long.
I think if you had an underlying issue that is causing the stress on the jaw OTHER than clenching or stressing or fatiguing it, maybe surgical correction of that underlying issue might make sense–if you have an underbite or something where you are using your jaw muscles to enable your jaw to close properly, for example, maybe addressing the underbite would address the TMJ problem. But if the joint is tired because you clench your jaw when you sleep, then it’s not really the joint’s fault and can’t really be fixed by poking at the joint.
That is my nascent understanding, and may be the stupidest thing ever posted here. I hope to be corrected if I’m way off base.
Mine is charging 500 for the appliance.
The bite problem is mostly gone from yesterday. Then, I could only touch my incisors together. Now my jaw mostly closes properly. The appliance (again, in my understanding) is to prevent my jaw joint from getting so stressed and spasm-y again that it has the same sort of failure. It will do much like ZipperJJ’s pencil between the teeth trick, preventing my jaw from clenching shut.
Thanks for the info, jsgoddess. That’s what I’ve been told…but my issue is this: any time I’ve had problems with another joint in my body, the first thing the doctor did was get an X-ray of the joint to look for problems. I find it curious that with TMJ, nobody wants to do X-rays, just guess at what might help.
Which is especially frustrating, given that all the treatments offered are expensive, and insurance won’t cover a lot of them. And apparently, my dentist is trying to rip me off. :mad: At least I now know to look for a new dentist.
I’m under a LOT of stress right now. I don’t expect it to resolve any time soon. And this problem is just adding to the misery.
I don’t see physical therapy by a TMJD specialist mentioned by anyone. He gave me exercises, ultrasound therapy for my masseters, and also light therapy. This actually did help me a lot to relax my masseters and be more aware of how I am holding my jaw (while awake, anyway). Most of the discomfort is gone, and when it does start to reemerge, I can control it by doing the masseter and temple massages. I recommend it.
I got my appliance and it was like a miracle. I had completely worn away the cartilage on one side (could clearly see from the Xrays) and I felt like someone was sticking knitting needles into my eardrum. Nice.
Over the course of several years, I have had to get it adjusted. My dentist will check it every time I go for a checkup, and more if I need it, for no charge. She told me that as my muscles relax the fit changes. I’ve had a few flair ups, but every time I get my mouthguard adjusted it’s better pretty quickly.
Good luck – I never felt anything so painful in my life (and I’ve given birth to two children, who incidentally I believe are the cause of my stress and TMJ!).
Question: did it fix your bite, or just the discomfort?
It reminds me of runner’s knee. I never had x-rays for runner’s knee, just an exam and a description of the symptoms (which tend to be very specific).
My dentist said I had a textbook case, from developing a clicking jaw a couple of months ago to a weird ear pain a month ago that flared and subsided then recurred, and a sudden jaw misalignment. For me, I’m comfortable with that being enough for a diagnosis, since I fit the symptoms so perfectly. That doesn’t mean that you have to be so comfortable, though I’m not sure what the diagnostic criteria are.
You said you are really stressed, as am I (it’s my new normal!) and it seems like it may be a spiraling thing for both of us. I was stressed, causing the jaw issues, which caused greater stress, etc. I can actually feel myself relaxing now that I have a firm diagnosis, but that’s me. The unknown pisses me off and makes me freak out.
QN: Did you have bite problems before this issue flared up? I didn’t, so I feel (perhaps foolishly) confident that I won’t once my jaw agrees to play nice.
jsgoddess is quite spot on with her assessment of surgery.
The main reason why I say no surgery is…I talked to I think 12 women who suffered with TMJD for my article (the article was for a journalism school assignment, where we had to have a certain number of interviews. Also needed to have a focus, mine was a women’s magazine) and all of the women who had surgery said that they were either the same or worse after surgery. EXPENSIVE surgery. You think $5-6k every 10 years or so (or just once) for re-alignment is expensive, how much do you think surgery costs? Don’t think your insurance will cover it, no fucking way.
If you have your little bit of cartilage replaced in your jaw…then what? What is to keep your muscles and your teeth from messing it up again? Your jaw is mis-aligned at the teeth, not the joint. The mis-alignment is causing stress on the joint. What do you expect surgery to fix?
An appliance isn’t a cure-all and braces aren’t a ripoff. I have beautiful teeth (no cavities, no orthodontics as a kid) but a mis-aligned jaw and I had braces twice. Then once the bite was set, via braces, I have to sleep with an appliance to keep my jaw in place while I’m sleeping.
TMJD is a whole-body problem. Not just your jaw joint. Your jaw muscles, your neck muscles, your shoulder muscles, your back muscles. Your jaw joint is also unique in the way it is structured and the way it works. It’s amazing that it works at all!
It’s a whole-body problem and it’s a whole-life problem. I’ve had TMJD since I was 18 and I’m now 32 and while I manage just fine and spend most of my life without braces and care, I still have to avoid stuff that aggravates the area and deal with it when there are problems. It’s annoying but it’s not life-threatening.
Feel free to get a second opinion, and do. I was so happy my dentist sent me off to someone who was able to help me right away.
But also remember that a surgeon is in the business of doing surgery. You can definitely find a surgeon that will tell you the best option is surgery but you can also find a Lexus dealer who will tell you that Lexus is the best car made ever.