Ok, what the heck is TMJ? I looked it up on the web and it stands for Temoromandibular Joint Disorder. Simplified, severe jaw pain. Not all jaw pain is TMJ. If you suddenly find your jaw aching, see your doctor. It could be a sign of serious health problems, including an on coming heart attack. That being said, I will get on with my tail of woes, including all the things I did wrong, and how I am now attacking the problem.
First things first:Â
What I did wrong:
- Self diagnosed: I grabbed my little bag of symptoms and struck out across cyberspace in search of the answer to what I was suffering from. (No doctor involved). If it had been a looming heart attack I would have been hooped.
- Self medicated: The first thing I did was start taking an over the counter pain reliever coctail of 2 acetaminaphen and 2 ibuprophen, both extra strength. Not necessarily a bad thing once or twice, but I took this coctail every two to three hours for nearly a month. The affect on my stomach, bowels and sleep habits was horrible.
- Treated the symptoms rather than the root cause: OK, so what’s wrong with that? I kept the pain away and found a measure of comfort. For starters pain is your friend. Without it you would not know there is a problem, and when you use enough pain relievers to keep the pain away you have no way of knowing when you are cured. Secondly, the longer you just mask the symptoms without attacking the root problem, the longer you will have the problem and the more severe and dangerous it may become.
Attacking the Problem:
First, my symptoms and their progression:
- The pain started as a dry crackling sensation in the area of my upper jaw and cheek, that felt like the start of a sinus infection. (I attacked it with colodial silver and mild saline nasal sprays.) It only got worse, so I hit it with decongestants. That made things even worse.
- Then it started to feel like a tooth ache. Since there was no apparent swelling, I assumed there was no absess. (again, a mistake. should have seen a doctor or dentist.) If you apply heat to an absess you could well pop it and spread infection through your body.
- The pain progressed to a deep burning and throbbing throughout my entire jaw and left side of my face. It was so severe that at that point if I had figured gnawing my wife’s leg off would ease the pain, she would have a serious limp today.
On to how I am fixing the problem… (more…)