TMJ Friends

I am not really sure where my story begins, but I do have two suspicions. One is in 1988, I had to have my wisdom teeth pulled because they were causing problems. They were very impacted, and I could not open my mouth more that 10 mm. After they were pulled, I then had full range of motion.

The next suspicion was in 1998. I was hit very hard in the back end of my husband’s pick-up truck and hit my head on the back glass. After the accident I had severe headaches for 3 weeks straight. Nothing I did would relieve the headaches. I couldn’t even think for myself. My husband finally insisted that I go to the emergency room to have a mri done. All they scanned was my brain, and it only showed a mild concussion. They gave me some pain meds and sent me on my way. The headaches did go away for about a month, but then returned with a vengeance.

Now I have headaches every day. This is the year 2006 people. My jaws started popping about 3 years ago, and I never thought any thing of tmj til I went to the dentist 2 years ago, and he told me that I might have tmj. He sent me to a specialist who I have been seeing since. Been through the splint therapy and still going thru it and the so called pain therapy. My specialist finally agreed to send me to get an MRI. Got my reading back on Tuesday April 4th. The mri showed a torn ligament in my left jaw as well as spurs on both jaws and total derangement of both discs and of course the adhesions. I am actually relieved that it is this and not brain tumors. ( you see my dad died with a brain tumor in 1989, and my sister is in remission from brain tumors.) Now, the next step for me is to see a shrink, to see if stress is the cause of the problems at hand. The date for that is May 1st. My doc wants to do surgery. However, I am planning on a second opinion first. If it will make the headaches go away, I do want to do the surgery. We will see what is to come. By the way my left jaw has gone into lock down. My right, well lets just say can’t do much without the left. There will be more to come as I journey through this thing called TMJ.

To read more stories of people like you, visit our TMJ patient story page.  As always, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or tips, let us know!