fancynancy

Hi all, my name is Nancy. I'm a 38 yr old mom, married for 10 yrs.
Anyway...I have been diagnosed with TMJ, although I don't know if the dr.
was right in his diagnoses.I had been having severe face, jaw, ear and neck
pain for over a week. I thought for sure that I had an ear infection, and
since I have generalized anxiety disorder, of course every little thing is a
death sentence to me. So I was afraid to go to the dr. However, the pain
became too much and my hubby took me to the ER. The dr. came in, looked in
my ears and said they looked fine. He took his fingers and pushed in certain
places, and exactly where he pushed was where the most pain was. He said oh,
this is easy, you have TMJ. No x-rays, no nothing. Just by pushing on a
couple areas he made the diagnoses. Is that possible??

OK, so here is what I am feeling, tell me if you agree with the diagnoses of
TMJ. I have severe pain in my right ear and jaw if I touch it anywhere. In
front of my ear, behind my ear and under my ear. I have a constant dull
headache. But the weirdest thing is...it doesn't hurt at all when I'm
chewing!?!? I would think that if it was TMJ, I would have bad pain when I'm
chewing and moving the jawbone. But my pain comes the worst BEFORE I
actually chew....anytime I put anything into my mouth, sometimes even
liquid, I get sharp pains on that side of my face. If I keep putting stuff
in there, the pain gets better and then I'm able to eat fine. Its like my
mouth has to get used to having anything in there. Then AFTER I eat, I get
pain on that side of my face...not sharp, more dull, but definitely pretty
bad. I notice that my neck is still too, but that could be because I've been
in so much pain and so depressed about all of this that all I've done is
spend time on my laptop in my recliner, and I guess that could be making my
neck stiff.

As I said earlier, I have generalized anxiety disorder and although I had a
dr tell me that I have tmj, I'm not sure if he's right. The thought that he
might be wrong means that it still could be something horrible like a tumor
or something. I just would like someone to tell me if my symptoms sound
possible when you have TMJ.

Also, the dr told me to take ibuprofen for the swelling and wanted to
prescribe vicodin for the pain. I can't take that so he gave me percocet.
While it helps with the constant pain, it doesn't really help with the pain
that I get from touching my face, and it also makes me sick. So I'm not
taking anything for the pain, besides ibuprofen, which really doesn't touch
it. I'm having a hard time sleeping because my face hurts if I lay on the
right side. Ugh...this is horrible. Does it sound like I have TMJ??

TIA,
Nancy

no

Hi Nancy,

I just had two weeks of "hell" similar to what you describe. Started as a
"toothache" but pain got progressively worse. Went to urgent care doc and she
said TMJ and prescribed anti-inflammatory and said to use vicodin which i
already had. I also have anxiety, as well as cervical disc problems w/neck
pain. This pain moved to my whole left jaw, and all the teeth on the bottom
left hurt. I went to my dentist and he didn't find anything. So i went to my
primary care doc, he said TMJ as well. I came back to the dentist and the doc
again, in so much pain i could hardly stand it. The meds, 3x a day, only gave
me a couple hrs relief after a dose. Ice, heat, anything - more of a
distraction than actually helping the pain. After 3 dr. visits and 2 dentist
visits, by day 13 it was so bad i literally had to hold ice cubes on the teeth
or my body temp sent me into horrific stabs of pain. I called the dentist,
told him exactly where this pain was (i couldn't narrow it down to a
particular tooth before, but now i could). Even tho he had x-rayed and seen
nothing, he removed a crown i had on the second to last molar, and found some
decay that was touching to the nerve. As soon as he gave me the shot to numb
it, i had relief. He did a root c****, and now i don't have that horrible
pain. My jaws still ache and i guess i still have to deal with the TMJ (still
eating only soft food) but i have my life back, so to speak. I truly think
that pain would have killed me, i've felt nothing like it before (and i've
been thru a lot!). The dentist is making me a night guard becuz i have always
been a tooth-clencher/grinder, and this has damaged my teeth over the years.

Could you possibly have decay under a crown or something?? I hope you can
find out and feel better soon! Try to see a dentist, and ask about a night
guard, too, they're supposed to help.

fancynancy

Hi ML....thanks for your response. As for the tooth pain relation, I don't
really know if that would be the answer, because my teeth don't hurt at all.
I don't have the best teeth in the world, but at this point in time, they
don't hurt at all. I can push on any of them and there is no pain. In fact
the doctor at the ER did the same thing. I don't believe its tooth related.
I don't grind my teeth at all, but I notice that I do clench quite a bit. I
don't know if I do it when I'm sleeping or not tho....ugh, this is just so
frustrating. I've never had a problem, healthwise, that didn't go away with
some sort of treatment. I find it almost impossible to comprehend that I
might have to live with this pain for the rest of my life. OMG....how do
people do it?? I haven't had health insurance for a few months, so the only
option I had was to go to the ER. Now my health insurance is going to kick
in again in a few days, and at least that will give me more options to find
out what this is. With my anxiety, and being afraid to find out if its
anything else, I am beginning to think that it would be better for me
mentally to get xrays or whatever to know for SURE that its TMJ...I think it
would be easier to deal with the pain if I knew it was something that wasn't
going to kill me.
Nancy>

tim dixon

I don't want to be the one to burst anyone's bubble. But there is no such
thing as a condition called TMJ. Regardless of what your real problem may
be, one thing it isn't is TMJ. It's not a medically acceptable diagnosis,
and generally is considered a waste basket term for a host of conditions and
symptoms affecting the head, neck and face.

My suggestion is to find a dentist who is skilled in treating conditions
affecting the temporomandibular joint.

the webby

Wecome!

You know, has anyone mentioned the parotid gland as a possible source of
your problem?

Webby

the webby

I guess I should have asked about "salivary glands" in general rather
than being specific to the parotid gland.

Webby

In article
<tmjiatroepidemic-4F43B1.10135003122005@news-lb-02.socal.rr.com>,

the webby

This is an important comment. The term is used commonly and most people
using or repeating this term, "TMJ" as a diagnosis, would probably ask
"so what?" And that is a *great question*!

So what? It's an easy answer to someone asking, "what is causing this?"
The doctor/dentist says, "you have TMJ"... and everyone breathes a sigh
of relief because the patient thinks "at least I know what is wrong with
me." But does the patient know what is wrong? Probably not. And this
is where trouble gets started. It starts right in the beginning.

Nancy, hopefully you'll find some information that gives you something
to work with at your next appointment. You can find out *now* why you
can comfortably ask, "what is wrong with my TMJ?" Or, "what else might
cause the symptoms I'm having?"

I think you've come to a good place for some useful information. I look
forward to reading more from you. In the future, I'll clip out excess
portions of posts but for now, I prefer to leave your post intact.

Webby

the webby

Welcome, m.L.,

I'm sure everyone is glad to know that you got to the bottom of the
painful tooth. Hopefully, you've read the other replies to Nancy
because they apply to your situation in certain ways too.

As for the night guard, you might be well-served to enhance what you
know about these dental devices. This is a bit of a confusing area to
people who have no previous "education" about "night guards".

Are you interested in reading more on this subject? If so, I'm sure you
can look forward to some very useful information.

Webby

[clip]

no

Yes, i'm following this thread closely.


I'm definitely interested in more information, thanks.

Having been a grinder my whole life, my gums started receding in my ****s and
now some are receded very far to where roots are exposed. One dentist was
going to refer me for skin grafts but another one said it's not necessary to
do that. I'm now becoming aware of the clenching i do throughout the day, i
never realized i did it so much before the pain pointed it out to me.

no

When i first went in to the doctor(s) and the dentist, they did this too,
pushed on each tooth and the dentist even tapped on each one and sprayed air
on them to test for sensitivity. One tooth was not anymore sensitive than the
others at first. Only after a few more days was i able to isolate one as
being much more painful than the others, so watch for that to happen.
I took hot water and icy cold water and touched it on one tooth at a time with
a cotton swab.

I do hope this resolves for you without too much more pain!