• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

Jaw/TMJ dislocation.... best treatment here?

L

luckyman316

Member
Joined
May 21, 2014
Messages
39
So a little history, some of which you can search for on here. Last year, I had a bridge on 2 teeth (right back molars) that I felt were too right. Ended up being right, I should have never had a bridge on those teeth and it was bringing my jaw inwards and likely clenching my jaw some more over time. Ended up having the bridge taken out but as it is, one of the teeth (I believe #30) had an abscess on the gumlines. Turns out that tooth was fractured and re-infected many years later after a root canal.

So, I ended up having the tooth yanked out with the thought that I'd be going forward with a dental implant on tooth number 30 and a new crown on the one on 31 (a live tooth majorly cut down). Naturally, my body tells me "nope, something else here" and throws me severe spinal cord compression in my neck. So bad that I need a 2 level neck fusion in August 2020 and just had a 2nd surgery for an artificial disc replacement in the neck too 9 months later (4 days ago) to address the rest. So of course, I have to postpone all my dental work here because, well, gotta heal the neck.

The problem is, since August 2020 until now, the jaw has gotten worse. Yes, there was a bone graft put in there during my extraction but since I did not continue with anything... my one crown fell off (it was too short anyway) and will not stay in no matter what I do, leaving me with 1/4 of a live shaved down tooth exposed.

I've also been clenching a LOT more since this occurred, so I can only imagine the clenching has done more damage. I've tried using an old appliance I had made many years ago for my teeth and the fit is extremely tight. So tight I feel it is trying to basically shift my jaw back to place (it's on the upper teeth).

My problem is, it's my bottom jaw that feels all mess up. I legit hear crunching and grinding on the right side of the jaw. I can legit push my jaw from my left to my right and it feels like it's trying to crunch back into place. The jaw feels crocked to me as well. It does cause extra tinnitus and yes, it causes neck pain in areas I did NOT have surgery and extra crunching and grinding there. When I wear the mouthpiece, it sort of subsides but it's very temporary relief.

Last year before my surgeries, they suggested I go to an oral maxillofacial surgeon but during the pandemic, it was closed. They have definitely since re-opened but I'm still healing. I want to consider though because this is a frustrating issue. I just feel like I need SOMETHING that will shift my jaw back into place over time.

So my question here is, without major surgery or major dental work of some sort (braces. retainer, etc), what would be a good option for me to try and shift this over? What will they do at this office? Take x-rays and determine from there? Do you think they'll want to finish the dental work I have yet to finish to see if that helps? I can only suspect it will to a degree but I'd prefer one that isn't going to take months to try and get an implant in. Any chance of some sort of block or denture or something to help this?

Thanks!
 
Sorry way out of my region of knowledge. Good luck with it.
 
Not a dentist but I had all the testing done at an oral surgeon for TMJD. Just to give you an idea, they manipulate your jaw a lot with their hands, asking you to bite down sometimes to see where your bite is in different positions. Plus they feel the joint with your jaw in different positions. Also x rays. I had the 3D ones done. I have TMJD and my surgeon basically said there isn’t much they can do. There is surgery, but he didn’t recommend it unless it was severe enough to hinder eating or quality of life, as the surgery doesn’t always last. Something about how the disc in the jaw can slip out again and then you need surgery again.

I am dealing with a particularly bad flareup myself right now. My jaw is misaligned and my teeth on the right side don’t even touch, so I am hitting hard on the left teeth. I had an implant placed on the left bottom, which is when it all started.
 
Not a dentist but I had all the testing done at an oral surgeon for TMJD. Just to give you an idea, they manipulate your jaw a lot with their hands, asking you to bite down sometimes to see where your bite is in different positions. Plus they feel the joint with your jaw in different positions. Also x rays. I had the 3D ones done. I have TMJD and my surgeon basically said there isn’t much they can do. There is surgery, but he didn’t recommend it unless it was severe enough to hinder eating or quality of life, as the surgery doesn’t always last. Something about how the disc in the jaw can slip out again and then you need surgery again.

I am dealing with a particularly bad flareup myself right now. My jaw is misaligned and my teeth on the right side don’t even touch, so I am hitting hard on the left teeth. I had an implant placed on the left bottom, which is when it all started.

Thanks for the heads up on what to expect. Yeah, I'm expecting most of this. My quality of life is very much hindered. All my issues are on the right side too. Heck, I don't even have teeth on the bottom right so I'm like 100% sure this is it. Even if they can find something simple for me to better the quality of life, that will work. I notice a LOT of issues start to subside if I wear my mouthguard but it's very temporary. Looks like I'll be off to the Oral Surgeon in a few weeks. I just hope this one has some specialization there. Most people seemt to go to them for easier tooth extractions and I'm not reading many reviews about the TMJD. Thanks again for the comment!
 
Back
Top