I've had a diagnosis of TMD for just over three years and been under the care of a dental hospital for two of those. They've treat me with medication, physio, pain management psychology, botox.. nothing helped. They suspected its all down to stress and clenching.
The pain started in my jaw and ears but over time has spread to the back of my head, neck and now I have upper back pain and an osteopath suspected arthritic changes.
During a routine check up at my regular dentist I happened to see a locum who used to be a maxillofacial consultant turned private dentist. It was immediately obvious to him what the problem.
I have a significant overbite (the deep bite sort) two missing teeth which is due to there not being any adult teeth underneath those baby ones, and I have another baby tooth remaining which is considerably smaller than the rest. All of these things, he said, have contributed to my bite being messed up and resulted in the TMD.
I'm just a bit confused and upset that neither my previous dentist or the dental hospital made the (fairly obvious to a professional i think) link.
How can something like this be missed? Nobody has ever mentioned an overbite to me and I've been seen many times.