To Be At Crisis Point With TMJ Pain

[BeeDaisy]

I am really struggling. I’ve been to the dental hospital numerous times to see the TMJ consultant and they just give me a mouth guard and send me on my way. It doesn’t nothing but cause even more pain.

The doctor just throws medication at me all of which I’m struggling with. I came off Amytriplyine because I couldn’t cope with the side effects. I’ve now had to do the same with Nortyriptyline.

I take cocodamol and naproxen daily. I try and take breaks at the weekend and switch to ibruprofen and anadin. Nothing fully gets rid of the pain.

I went to see an osteopath and felt relief for two hours afterwards. Unfortunately after this I was in agony much more than normal for 2 days and still counting.

I just don’t know what to do with myself anymore. I’m so fed up and sad about it all. Not a moment goes by when I’m not in pain. My sleep is disturbed.

I’ve been reading up on Botox and other private things but I’m worried I will pay all that money and it won’t do anything.

I am also worried about the damage all the painkillers could be doing to my body.

I also want dental treatment to make my front teeth look nice but no one will touch me whilst I’m in so much pain with TMJ.

Has anyone found a long term solution please? Or got rid of most of the pain?

It is really affecting my quality of life at this point.

I don’t know where to go from here.

OP I've just started a course of acupuncture and it's not a miracle pain relief but every week it is getting better (I'm on week 3). It's the only thing that's working (not tried botox and have a ridiculously expensive appointment with a private dentist in a few weeks).

I have suffered from TMJ, but not as badly as you. I couldn’t open my mouth very wide and would have constant headaches.

My NHS dentist also suffered similar and showed me a wonderful technique for it, although it’s harder to self administer.

He would basically massage/stretch the inside of my cheeks, as mentioned by another poster. If you feel into the inside of your mouth behind your upper and lower back teeth you will feel a hard, strong like band of muscle/ligament/tendon? It feels a bit like a leather hinge. It’s further forward than your actual jaw joint and is in the check muscle.

He would push hard on this band backwards and outwards. The more tight the band the more it hurts when it gets stretched. But the relief is fairly instant and stays for a while. He would do this regularly for me on my checkups, or I would make a specific appointment for this. It would always allow me to open my mouth wider after. I also grind my teeth at night. He also gave me mouth exercises to do.

Unfortunately my dentist retired and I’ve never found another dentist who knows about this. I think it’s to do with Trigger Point Therapy.

I also think it’s helps to do strong massage on the outside of your jaw, below the cheek bones as suggested by another poster.

If you try this, please read up on it first. Because by dentist showed me, I sort of know how to do it to myself. But I do not know if it could cause damage if you do it wrongly.

But please do have a look at this. It makes so much sense that if it’s due to this band of muscle/ligament/tendon being too tight, then the best way to treat it is to treat the source of the problem, rather than ways that indirectly may help.

It’s so miserable suffering in pain, I do hope you find something that helps you soon.

I’ve booked a telephone consultation with my doctor to discuss the painkillers no longer working.

Does anyone know of anything I could ask for instead? I barely ate yesterday as the pain developed into a migraine and I feel on the brink of being sick so went to bed at 8pm.

This morning I still have a migraine and I am in agony. Feeling very fed up with this now.

OP I don’t know if you’re near wilmslow near Manchester at all but I see a physio who specialises in this jaw massage technique.

You don't seem to have had some of the very basics of treatment ie jaw exercises, relaxation techniques, physiotherapy, or if you have you've skirted over that side of things. Maybe revisit that for starters. You can always use UK treatment guidelines to support your discussion with your GP

cks.nice.org.uk/topics/temporomandibular-disorders-tmds/management/management/

@clickyteeclickI would be interested in the details please, three years into jaw pain and it’s driving me nuts.

Ironically I have found chewing gum relaxes my jaw so it’s clearly more muscular and less of a joint issue.

You basically use your thumb to massage the inside of your cheeks, near the back. You press hard at points where the most pain is and it releases the tension. I went to a physio who specialises in TMJ and it sorted out my issue, I only needed a couple of sessions and she taught me how to massage my own cheeks.

Thanks I will try that.

@BeeDaisy how are? Im suffering c

@BeeDaisy did your pain go

@Borracha rud you have teeth pain with tmj