TMJ advice!!

[courtney251]

Hi guys,

I started to get severe jaw pain around 2 months ago. My dentist confirmed TMJ and was pretty useless and couldn’t give much advice. A lot of people advised me that acupuncture could help so that was the route that I have been going down. After the first session I could feel an improvement since then I’ve had two further sessions And I must admit it feels like it’s starting to get worse again. At £75 each session it’s very expensive. My jaw is starting to feel misaligned and I don’t know if I’m being paranoid but I feel like my face is changing shape. The headaches are the worst and it is really starting to affect my health and my day-to-day life. Has anybody else experienced this please tell me that it will get better soon because I’m at my wits end. I’ve had the Botox could help so I’m starting to consider that but everything is just so expensive.

I use a mouth guard at night which has stopped me having a frozen jaw. Before that, I wasn't able to open my mouth more than 2cm sometimes.

There are also massage and stretch techniques you can try if you Google.

Also generally reduce stress. Although nothing I've done has made me actually stop clenching my jaw at night.

osteopath really helped

Second osteopathic massage

ds(18) has had problems with his jaw for the last 2 weeks, every morning he wakes with a lot of jaw pain and cannot open his jaw more that a couple of cms for the first hour or so.

Eventually got an emergency dental appointment yesterday and they have said TMJ disorder, ds tells me his jaw has clicked when opening and eating for a long as he can remember and never mentioned it because he thought everyone had that 🤦🏻‍♀️. I can't believe that as pre pandemic he had regular check ups so surely a dentist would have picked it up before. I felt the parts of his jawline that the dentist pointed out to him and it feels really strange, not visible to the eye but feels a very different shape from mine or dhs.

Dentist has said 4 weeks of soft foods, no clenching, no stretching mouth wide when eating/yawning and use Ibruprofen to get the swelling down, then they will review and possibly look at a mouth guard.

He hasn't mentioned headaches, I will be lurking on this thread to learn more, while still hoping it sorts itself out and doesnt become a longterm problem for him. ☹️

I would ask dentist if massage safe.
they may dismiss it but so long as it’s safe I’d strongly recommend it
fixed mine very quickly and very good for inflammation