TMJ

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I've had tmj for as long as I can remember. Mine's to the point of a constant dull pain 24/7 no matter what i'm doing. I've found that putting heat on it helps a lot. I bought a rice bag (fabric bag filled with rice) microwaved for like 2 mins does wonders. Try it and let me know if it helps.

I would say a heat pack is the best way to go, but in regaurds to the rice pack,you can make a cheap verison of that at home. Just take a clean sock, fill it 3/4 full with rice on the foot part and heat it up in the micro.

I also get relief with hot showers or even some nice warm soup in my mouth. Heat is diffiently the key! :d

I have had tmj for about 2 years, and it keeps getting worse! I went to my specialist and he gave me some pain killers, but they have their ups and downs. They do take the pain away, but they make you drowsy and you cannot take them if you plan on doing anything. One is propoxyphene/acetaminophen. I have also learned to beome dependent on my mouth guard. I wer it alot, but it kills me when I do not wear it. The other methods he told me about were either heat or coolness....You can put a warm cloth or a cold cloth on you jaw for about 1/2 hour everyday, or when it get bad. You just need to find out which one worls for you. Good luck!
~misty

I found that heat -- such as hot coffee -- exacerbates my tmj condition, even if I do my best so that the affected side of my jaw/teeth does not have hot liquid sloshing over it.

The pain at times became so serious that it frightened me, helping me to think of the possibility of never being able to get away from it.

In lieu of medical treatment (i have no health insurance), i've just experimented with otc painkillers. Aspirin does nothing. I just switched to motrin (ibuprofen) today, and my fingers are crossed.

I've had "some" tmj for brief periods of time in both sides of my jaw for a year and a half or so, but it is only in the past week where the pain experienced in the right side of the jaw has dwarfed any tmj pain i've ever experienced before.

I've found that gentle massage of the tissues directly underneath the affected part of the jaw is surprisingly helpful. ... If you have pain on one side only, you may want to try to palpate (feel) the tissues under the jaw. I've found that when the pain became intense in the right jaw, I always was able to notice a difference in how the soft tissues on each side of the jaw compared to each other.

In other words, just in my own experience, I found that the tissues underneath the unaffected half of the jaw were the most soft, while the tissues underneath the painful side of the jaw, most definitely, had more volume to them -- i.E., they were larger, perhaps engorged with blood, and exquisitely tender. Pressing on them and massaging those tissues gently seemed to relieve pain better than aspirin, for sure.

I don't have a mouth guard. I don't grind my teeth in my sleep. While tmj has woken me from sleep maybe once in the past two weeks, it's when I sit up (and stay up) after waking that the pain builds to the point of being excruciating.

I've no doubt that i'll be making more entries into this forum in the coming weeks, as I would like to know the experiences of others, even if I can obtain just a small degree of relief from this pain by reading the posts of fellow tmj sufferers.

One last thing: when the pain got to nearly intolerable levels recently, I soon learned that my emotional reaction to it only made the pain worse. As horrible as the pain can be, my accepting it as best I can at any given moment seems to be good medicine to, in a partial way, take away some of the pain.

Hi everyone...Just lookiong for sopme input. I have been a serious grinder my entire life, and have constant tmj pain in my jaw, ears, and temples. For the past week I have had all kinds of pain in the back of my head along with a dull headach. I have not been sleeping right ( 7 month old baby) so I know I have been grinding and locking at night. Has anyone else had back of the head pain? Any info would help thanks : )

Hey all. Just wanted to let you all know that I have tmj pain also. I have seen a specialist and wear a splint all the time. I am just starting to take it out when I eat but otherwise I have been wearing it all the time. I have noticed that my pain is worse when I notice that I have been clenching at night. I have started taking a muscle relaxer which helps a lot. I also am going to physical therapy and it's helping a lot. Ionto is what my pt has been doing and it has helped me miraculously. I recommend it highly. He also does ultrasound and light therapy on it. It really helps my joints. Then he will massage the muscles on my face and whatnot. I can't even tell you how skeptical I was in the beginning but now I am a firm believer in pt. Stop taking narcotics and high dose pain meds and get some real help. I'm willing to share my experience whenever.
Tatiana

Hi iam new to this forum I just wanted to share my experiences with tmj and offer some suggestions on pain management. About three years ago I had an impacted wisdom tooth extracted and as a result have experienced tmj symptoms, specifically a prsistant muscle tightnes in my left jaw; I just recently started wearing an nti devise which you place over your two upper front teeth at night while you sleep its maybe a half inch wide and made of a clear plastic material which your dentist can customize, I am not saying that its a cure all but it has probaly reduced the discomfort by 15 to 20 percent over the last two weeks; there somewhat expensive mine cost three hundred dollars but its well worth it, I also take two aleve gel caps in the morning and one in the afternoon. If you have any questions feel free to email me.

Like tashiberg said, light and ultrasound therapy are really effective. I bought a home ultrasound unit for $250 that's pretty amazing. Instead of going occassionally to the pt, I just treat myself at home every day.

I had a jaw pain for 3-4 years, I did following steps and I started noticing relief and my pain went away.

1. Went to tmj doctor he gave therapy and adjusted my jaw by pulling back of teeth from inside to out for 3 times. Night guard did not help. I massage back jaw muscle by my middle finger inside.
2. Exercise by opening mouth for 3-4 times. Also massage back of my mouth which gave me pain in the beginning but then my muscle became flexible and started feeling better.
3. yoga, Aerobic, walking on treadmill help too. Yoga of stretching neck, back, legs, hand help too. Give relief to the muscle and take off pressure. Yoga of 10 minutes and Aerobic or fast walking of 20 minutes helps.
4. Eat Calcium and protein for your muscle like yogurt, milk, tofu, vegetables, and fruit.
5. Drink 5 glasses of water.
6. Eat dentyne Chewing gum slowly; it hurt in the beginning but when muscles get flexible it starts feeling better. Eat for 2 -3 days then give break for 2 days. Do that for 2 weeks, muscles will get massage and it helps too.

Yoga, exercise and walking and good diet definitely helps. Hope you all feel better.

i was diagnosed with chronic temporal mandibal joint disorder which has now lead to traumatic arthuritis about 5 months ago. i was suffering dizziness (fainting at work), ringing in the ears, loss of vision when eating, tired after eating, numbness of hands and sheer frustration. the dizziness is caused because your mandibal joint is right near very important nerves and tissue that effect balance and vision sometimes pinched or the swelling is pressing againt the nerves.

i have been suffering from it since i was 17 (now 23) and went to doctor after doctor and they told me they didnt no what was wrong. i remeber swearing at one doctor what the f**** wrong then!

being frustrated i saw my dentist who refered me to a magnificent proffessor who deals with tmj disorders in melbourne. he writes for the australian medical journal which are the guidelines for australian doctors to follow in their practise. PLEASE NOTE do not go to a normal doctor, most of them are not familiar with tmj. see a dentist and be refered.

After having an MRI scan done (which is really the only way to pick anything up with tmj or soft tissue damage) they found that the cartilage between my jaw joints had worn away and my joints were now just bone on bone.
i now have a mouth splint i sleep with which has to be modified once a month due to me putting holes in it with my teeth from chronic clenching.

when i was about 19 i had my wisdom teeth romoved which the surgeon had to dislocate my jaw to operate inside my mouth because my mouth was too small, which the proffessor believes has worsened my condition and he has seen alot of patients with tmj worsened because of wisdom teeth extraction. and funny enough i am about the third patient with a worsened condition from the same surgeon! pure negligence. tmj can also be caused from a blow to the jaw.

not allowed to eat anything big or hard like hamburgers or nuts, very annoying cos i love these! what frustrates me the most with having tmj is that people cannot sympathise or sometimes believe the pain you are suffering because u appear to look fine and that nothing is wrong with you. which has made it difficult for me to take time off work when i cant open my mouth or have terrible pain or headaches.

here are a few things that may help you...
-stop drinking coffee and eliminate caffeine from ur diet. i have stopped drinking coffee (used to drink about 4 a day) and my pain has gone from a ten out of ten to about a 3 out of ten. u will almost notice the difference straight away (i noticed the day i stopped). caffeine is a stimulant not a relaxant and does not help with anxiety. tmj can even be caused from drinking excessive amounts of cofee as it leads you to grind your teeth while sleeping.
-try not to sleep on your side, sleep on your back if possible make sure your neck is supported.
-do not widen your mouth further then pain lets you
-do not sway your bottom jaw from side to side
-when yawning place your hand under your chin to restrain your jaw from moving
-when suffering from a spasm, bad pain or stiffness in your jaw place fingers on mandibal joints which you feel just infront of your ears. put some pressure and veryslowly drag your fingers down to the base of your jaw always placeing pressure.
-if seeing a doctor about tmj query about the drug paxam. its a relaxant that the prof gave and has helped me relax my jaw before going to bed.

something else you may not know is that ppl with this disorder may find that somewhere in there family may of been a case of "fibromyalgia". my mum has had this since she was little and tmj can be apart of this illness. and one of the symptons which goes along with fibro... is sensitivity to loud noises, bright lights and smell. which i experience with the tmj.

the proffessor i am seeing goes back and forth to america for conferences on tmj so any new news i can get out of my consutations i will post on here cos i know how dam frustrating this menace of an illness is and is!

I had tmj due to accident and I suffer lot, could not sleep, pain all the time, tried many excersize, diet but only thing after 5 years help was physical therapy.

if you want to get rid of pain, discomfort only best thing you can do is physical therapay for 4 weeks. Answer is physical Therapy massage.....
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physical therapy massage doesnt work for every one. that is not the only answer--the answer depends on the person and the case itself