thank you very much for replying.
my family dentist told me i was grinding at night. i had no pain or obvious problems, so i told him to forget it, but he kept insisting. he made me a night guard which looked like a retainer i wore in 7th grade after i had braces. he instructed me to wear it at night, and if i was stressed to wear it during the day.
i wore it from march of 08 and my pain started in august of 08. as a result, i have an anterior open bite. i was told my molars supra erupted because the night guard kept them apart. i was also the the night guard is what *caused* this entire cycle because it loaded my joints and opened my bite.
the orthotic does not control my facial pain. i have tingling in my cheeks, aching, and forehead and scalp aching. my jaw feels tired and has total loss of proprioception.
it does not make sense to me that TMJ can cause the above facial symptoms. do you have other patients with symptoms like mine?
how does one regain the space lost between the condyle and fossa?
Reply
I have seen hundreds of patients with similar symptoms. TMJ disorders are often caused the Great Imposter because so many iverse problems can result. Check out this link for a story I wrote for Sleep and Health.
http://www.sleepandhealth.com/story/suffer-no-more-dealing-great-impostor
Did the pain come on sudely or very gradually?
Normally you will not have a lot of supereruption from wearing an appliance only at night? If there is an acute dislocation of the disk it can create problems like you are having.
Do you have a problem opening your mouth wide as that is often seen with acute dislocation.?
