TMJ please help

[LivelyCrab]

This has suddenly come out of the blue. I’ve been to doctors and dentist who both say Tmj. My cheek muscles feel tense and heavy, and I have a sharp pain my my left ear that shoots down my jaw and neck.

im trying to do all the advised things, soft food, limited talking, heat packs.

Im onto week 3 now and it doesn’t seem to be gettting any better. I feel so depressed.

Hi OP once mine subsided - which took quite a long time - it has never come back. However TMJ coincided with onset of tinnitus - I know there is a connection between the two but the medical people didnt say so. Unfortunately tinnitus didnt go away so I have to live with it, really hard at first but I’ve got used to it now.
Hope yours improves soon. I’m sure mine was stress related with jaw clenching as I was going through a particularly stressful time when I had it.

An osteopath was the one who sorted it out for me, it was amazing relief

I had botox too and it really helped me. It does wear off, and it's not cheap but it was a life saver when i was waking up in pain every morning.

I also now have a mitchigan splint which took a bit of getting used to. Can't get them on nhs any more . Not near me anyway. It was about £450 I think but is worth it compared to what i paid for botox over a year.
Also i take amitriptyline for sciatica, and I think that's helped me relax more when I sleep.
I started with a silicone mouth guard which protects my teeth but doesn't do a lot to help the tension in the cheek muscles.
I hope you find a good solution. My doctor just told me to work on my stress levels. Which is easier said than done, especially when in pain.
Ps mine started very suddenly 8 years ago @LivelyCrab and it was so bad I thought I was about to have a brain aneurysm. I'm still here!

I managed to get Botox for it on the NHS many years ago but it didn’t help me unfortunately. I was eventually referred to hospital who did an MRI which showed the little discs in my jaw were ‘faulty’ for want of a better word. Almost like they’d been worn down. If you’re still suffering, ask for a hospital referral in case you need some additional help

Sorry to hear that @LittleRobins what treatment did they give you? Hope you’re feeling better.

In the end nothing, still suffering! They wanted to operate and then it was cancelled on the day of the op. At the follow op they said they would only operate it my jaw was locked and wouldn’t open which seems extreme. I feel for people who get to that state before they can get help. I use a bite guard at night which helps a bit I think. The exercises do nothing for me. I’ve got acupuncture left too try but it’s rather expensive

Oh no, poor you. I hope you’re not in too much pain day to day and that you find some relief soon!

To those of you who’ve had bad flare ups what’s been the rough time scale for the healing?

Mine was more pain in my head, so it's possibly not tmj as such, but I founds the original bite guard made a difference within days. I still fear my clench/grind habits will cause long term injury so I am very glad to have the mitchigan splint. My search engine came up with better explanations than i can.

I've notice that if I'm stressed the jaw clenching gets worse and my speech gets a bit slurred ( maybe because the tmj is tight?) The splint has probably improved things more than the botox did.

So to all sufferers, the intense muscle spasms in my cheeks have totally calmed down, along with more intense jaw pain. I’m still left with some residual aching around and below my Tmj though, still don’t feel 100% back to normal. Is this common?

I've had it a few times. The exercises work and it goes away. Never sure what sets it off again but it can last days or weeks.

My gp and the dentist who made the mitchigan splint were very clear that stress is very often the cause. It's very difficult to stop the overnight clenching and the added worry associated with the resulting pain.
@LivelyCrab I imagine the aching is a result of tension in that area. I have gone five months without botox and normally I'd be feeling the need for a top up by now, but the mitchigan splint/amitriptyline combination seem to be doing the trick for the moment.
It's a miserable pain and I wish you and our fellow sufferers well.

I have TMJD the Maxfax consultant thinks it’s related to having rheumatoid arthritis as, apparently, it’s more common if you have RA than in the general public without it. My GP originally referred me to the hospital a few years ago because my jaw would lock open when I was yawning or eating.

First time I saw them I was given the advice to only eat soft foods, not to open my mouth more than the distance from the top of my thumb to the first joint (about an inch) to stop it locking and given a set of exercises that included rolling my tongue backwards so the tip is pointing towards your throat and then pushing your jaw forwards so your lower teeth are in front of the top teeth.

I did this for 3 months with virtually no improvement so, 3 years ago, I had the first of 2 steroid injections into the joint space. It hurt like hell when the local anaesthetic wore off but it did help things; I had the other side done about 9 months later and have had a second injection into the side that locked. Now I’m getting the issues again but without opening my mouth wide so I’m going to have to ask my GP surgery to refer me again and see if they will do more injections or whether they’re going to recommend something else as they did say they can only do so many injections and there are other treatments/procedures they can move to if I continue having issues.

Putting the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth can help during waking hours.

@LovedFedAndNoonesDead I had no idea it was related to RA!
I have RA and intermittent TMJ. I also have a young niece with RA who's had dreadful jaw problems.
Last week my jaw froze on the "good" side and I couldn't open it or eat. It lasted 24 hours so I put it down to a palindromic flare which I get a lot of.

So sorry to hear this - I hope the glee settles down quickly. Yes the MaxFax consultant told
me it can be connected because of the damage RA can do to joint surfaces and that increases the likeliness of issues!!

Im aboht to ask for a referral back to them as it’s getting so bad now; I’d advise the same for you too xx

My flare up has largely settled down thankfully. Still have the odd twinge.

I have a feeling that mine might be linked to perimenopause. Seems crazy because I don’t have a ton of other symptoms, but I’ve noticed the feeling always appears just before my period. Possibly a coincidence though.

Sorry, that should say flare, not glee!!

Does anyone have really intense shooting teeth pain with tmjd? I was diagnosed in 2020. Had an awful time with it for about 2 years. It eventually lessened with an nti device and medication. However I had the audacity to try and eat a buger on Monday and I've been getting really bad shooting pains in all my top teeth on my left side today. It can happen completely randomly or it also happens when moving my head/neck. I'm uses to the dull achey feeling but this is different. No sinus issues/congestion. Bit worried as I'm meant to do night shift tonight and haven't slept a wink!

@LivelyCrab how are you now? Im going through this currently . Did the miurhguard help?

Had a follow up appointment by phone last week and now need to be seen in person with the plan being to do an arthrocentisis or arthroscopy on the jaw with a degree of speed - mostly because they ‘forgot’ to follow me up after the joint injections in 2022 & 2023!!

@BabyCat2020z will it really help? X

Have flare ups too. Dentistdoes massage and botox. Couldn't afford it but would consider if next time. Wheat bag heated on cheek helps. Never chew nuts or hard foods. It's horrendous I agree!