Tmj

Hi cerwin,
yes, I have had severe tooth/teeth pain off and on over the years i've had tmj. There are usually two main reasons for our teeth hurting. The biggest reason is the clenching and grinding we do. If you aren't wearing a bite splint on a regular basis, the pressure that we can put on our teeth is unbelievable. And even if you do wear a bite splint, if you are a hard clencher, that can be bad.

Another cause of teeth hurting for tmjers is that our joints aren't as stable as they should be. One minute we might be biting differently than just a few hours ago and that will put pressure on a different part of a tooth than before causing pain. If the bite doesn't move back to where it should be soon, the teeth will start to shift to adjust to the new bite. It can be such a horror sometimes.

How to help the pain? See a dentist first and get x-rays to make sure there are no problems in the nerves, abcess, etc. Not knowing how you are treating your tmj makes it difficult to give you advice, but one is to wear a bite splint whenever sleeping, another is to take anti-inflammatories. Using heat on the painful area when going to bed is helpful. If you find out or know you are a clencher or grinder, you might want to take a medicine that will relax you while sleeping like a muscle relaxant, valium or anti-depressant.

I hope this helps. Hope you have a pain-free holiday.
Carol

Hi carol,
thanks for the info. I am not been diagnosed with tmj, but think that the symptoms that I have fit tmj. I am not able to get to a dentist until after the holiday. I will explain a little of what has happened to me and see what you think. At the beginning of dec. I had severe pain in my right jaw. It hurt to open my mouth very wide and to touch my face under my right eye hurt and also my right temple. I had no swelling any where and no one tooth hurt, just the whole right side of the inside of my mouth. Suffered thru this until right before christmas. Went away and now it has come back again about 4 days ago. This time I am also getting a really sharp pain right in front of my ear and it feels like my ear hurts. I am a teeth grinder and gritter. My husband tells me about it all the time. This time my upper right wisdom tooth is the one that is bothering me the most. Even the bottom of my jaw hurts this time. When I fit my teeth together on the right side they don't seem to touch like they used too. I can deal with the pain during the day (grouchy lol) but I can handle it. It is at night when I try to sleep there is no way to be comfortable and not have pain and I know that my lack of sleep from the pain is what makes me so grouchy. I was thinking of purchasing a mouth guard at the drugstore to see if that would help. What do you think? Anyway, and help or information especially about helping with pain at night that I would be able to do myself since I wouldn't be able to get to a doctor until after the holiday I would greatly appreciate. If this is tmj is this a constant thing or does it come and go? Thanks again.

What a bummer. Do you have any idea what set the pain off in the beginning of december? Me - I just woke up one morning in excruciating pain with my mouth locked closed. That was 25 years ago. :( we must both be grinders/clenchers.

Since the splints at the store are cheap, you could buy one and see if it helps with the g&c. If either way (helps or doesn't help) you should plan on having a good tmj dentist/oral surgeon/orthodontist make a splint fit just for your mouth. They usually have to be adjusted several times for the first few months. Unless your personal dentist is a tmj specialist (and not just one seminar, but lots of training and several patients), you will need to find one in your area. Sometimes they can be hard to find.

Tmj is a very unusual dysfunction unfortunately. It can be "healed," or it can come and go the rest of your life, etc. I have had it off and on, but I do know some friends who have defeated it. For me it runs in cycles where i'll have it bad for months and then do very well for a while. It's so infuriating. I did go almost two years pain free five years ago and it was heaven. I was on a liquid diet and had just start taking an anti-depressant so i'm sure the two combined did the trick. I now just can't force myself to go on a liquid diet again, but I might just have to anyway. I have had the same problem you mentioned about teeth hurting and jaw hurting, etc. It's all just the tmj unfortunately.

I need to give you some important advices and hints (that I wish I had known 25 years ago).

+ do not open your mouth wide open for any reason, including yawning. For the next few weeks (or months) eat only soft foods or liquid diet, and definitely no gum chewing or eating ice ever again.

+ use lots moist heat. If the pain gets bad, use ice on the side that hurts the most and lie on a heating pad on the side that doesn't hurt so much. It will numb the pain and relax you at the same time. That's one my life savers.

+ if you are able to take 600 to 800 mg of ibuprofen, it is the best otc pain killer. If the pain is still too much and you can tolerate hydrocodone, ask your doc for a script for vicoprofen. Be careful to eat food around taking any of these pills because ibuprofen can hurt tummy.

+ do not let anyone recommend surgery or braces or filing down several teeth to fix bite at this point. ***no surgery*** if your dentist thinks filing one or two teeth at small points will help, that's okay. No more though until pain is managed.

+ if your dentist decides you need to have your wisdom teeth taken out, go to the very best oral surgeon you can find and make sure they know you have tmj. Removing wisdom teeth can either make tmj better or worse.

+ bite splints are the best way to start to heal the tmj and reduce or get rid of the resultant pain. Some people complain that wearing a splint makes the pain worse, but if that is happening it usually means the splint needs adjusting or it is not the type of splint you should be wearing. There are many difference types of bite splints and all splints are only as good as their makers.

+ as soon as you can get into your doctor or dentist, get a script for a few weeks of valium to take at night to see if this will calm down any grinding or clenching you are doing right now.

+ if you continue to have problems controlling the grinding and/or clenching, talk to your doc about taking some sort of medication other than valium that you can take every day. It's usually an anti-depressant but make sure that the anti-d doesn't have a side effect of grinding as prozac does. Prozac is still a good one to take but usually you also will have to take a small dose of buspar with it.

+ if the pain is not breaking up, either ask your doc for a referral to physical therapy or find a massage therapist. Both should be educated in working with tmj.

I know I just bombarded you with a lot of information.

One last tidbit - do as much researching and educating yourself that you can. I don't want you to be shocked at how few medical personnel know anything about tmj, and that includes dentists. So always be careful and get several opinions from medical people and tmj patients before doing anything drastic. I also highly suggest the following website - nismat.Org/ptcor/tmj/ it is excellent for tmj newbies and even all of us.

If you have more questions, continue to post them here or even feel free to contact me at my regular email adress - cargill 214@yahoo.Com

happy new year and god bless...
Carol