The TMJ Association - changing the face of TMJ

TMJ Resources - Our Family - Patient Talk

Helen

I first discovered the pain of TMJ when I went to my general practitioner for an ear infection 6 years ago. My left side of my head was killing me, my ear was holding water in it, and I couldn't hear anything. She looked in my ear and said that she did not see any infection and that she could not find anything wrong with me. I thought she was completely nuts. This happened 4 more times before I got online and typed in my symptoms and TMJ came up. I had never heard of it. The more I read about it, the more I was convinced to start doing something about it.

The slow degeneration of my jaw, (both sides) has left me with excruciating pain, my front teeth are so worn down that I have to get them bonded or replaced, my face is distorted and my jaw bones have started to poke out the sides of it, I have a hard time smiling, laughing, sleeping and eating, and I have constant worry every day that it will only get worse. Plus, nobody has a cure for this! I would just like to comment that this is not a condition to be treated by dentists or orthodontists, which I have been quoted their outlandish prices for supposedly fixing my problem, and helping to pay off their Jaguar. I have heard many horror stories about TMJ surgeries. I meet someone new every day who says they have the same problem as me. It's becoming an epidemic and it has to be stopped. All I can do is learn to live with it and somehow try to keep my symptoms to a minimum. I don't chew gum, I had to quit teaching aerobics where I would have to shout, and I only open my mouth an inch to yawn, eat, and talk. I cannot wait until there is a cure for this, but in the meantime I will share my story and hope that I have connected with others out there who share in my pain.