I was diagnosed 4 years ago has having a tmj problem and after two visets to the macillio facial dept who did nothing apart from tell me to keep taking any pain meds I might be on . Over the last year the problems seem to have got a lot worse and its affected the nerves and muscles and ligiments on the left side of my face and make it hard to talk properly and leaves me with more stress than I can put into words .
Has anybody else had any TMJ experiences to share on this forum, because I would love to hear from you . ps the only effective pain meds ive taken is Pregabalin .
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pinkbutterfly1000
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I suffered from this condition some years ago and was cured by a cranial osteopath after just two sessions. You won't be able to find one on the national health service but if you can afford it it is worth a try. Drugs won't help. You need to have the jaw realigned. Good luck.
Yes, I have TMJ pain as part of my spondyloarthritis. I find rubbing voltarol gel over the jaw joint area helps (though you need to patch test on a very small area first as it can be a bit fierce on facial skin) - keep well away from your eye area though. If you do use an NSAID gel (voltarol or ibuprofen) then you need to use it regularly for a while for it to build up and really work its best.
I got treated for TMJ pain for a year, under the max fax clinic. The treatment was no yawning, no chewy foods, no opening the mouth to bite into things like apples, rub ibuprofen gel around the joint 4 times a day, and take my medication (at that time I was on nortriptilyne). They also made me a splint to wear over my teeth at night to stop any tooth grinding.
When none of that worked I had an arthroscopy on the jaw joint, something that is done sometimes to clean out the joint and make it better. In my case it was done to inspect the joint, and it turned out that it was absolutely fine. Needless to say, the pain didn't get any better because that hadn't been the problem in the first place.
In the end the max fax surgeon sent me to the pain clinic. To cut a very long story short, the pain wasn't actually coming from the TMJ, even though I feel it there. It comes from other places in my neck, and the nerve that "feels" that pain runs around the TMJ.
Having had chronic pain for a long time before getting anywhere I understand what it's like when you're told to just keep taking the tablets. It might be that the max fax department can't do anything else for you, but that doesn't mean that nothing can be done at all. Keep on at your GP and see if you can get a pain clinic referral.
Commiserations - I think face pain is bloody awful.
Yea I was under two different pain clinics a few months ago ,the best one could come up with was hypnopherapy ,and that was a waste of time
The other wanted me to use a tens machine on my face ,and after talking with my doctor ,I wrote that one off as well .
Right now my nerves and muscles and ligaments on the left side of my face are tightened up to hell ,and I can only consider this is something regarding the TMJ.
It's called referred pain. Because of the huge nerve network in the face you can have a problem one side but the pain seems to be in another. By the way I am not diagnosing but I really don't think your problem is TMJ. So that post about a chiropractor realigning it. Rubbish, not to put too fine a point on it! Sorry.
Well ive definitely got a TMJ problem ,I was diagnosed my two mac facial surgeons ,one is a TMJ expert, Mr Sidebottom.,Im looking at maby trying the Cranial Osteopath thing. Because after seeing my doc this morning he suggested another pain clinic .
Sorry if I misunderstood.according to your post a year ago you said you went to two max-fac specialists who both said it wasn't TMJ but possible nerve damage, or am I mistaken? f
you could also explore the techniques of heart maths institute that may appeal to you and reconnective healing. These modalities are also known to have collateral benefits
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