Hi everyone!

I am new to the board. I am 31 years of age and have been suffering with TMJ for about 7 years now. I was working with an oral surgeon in N.Y for about 2 years and finally after trying the mouth guard, exercises, changing my line of work (I am a hairdresser), Physical therapy, an aurthrocentesis, muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatory drugs, pain medicine, he recommended surgery.

I reluctantly made my appointment and was willing to go to that extent if it relieved me of the pain. And I well knew there was a real possibility this might not help as my Doctor informed me there was only a 50% chance of this working.

Well in the mean time while I was awaiting my appointment my father-in law died from heart problems and my mother-in law was practically destitute so my husband and I felt it the right thing to do to move to California to help, thereby putting off the surgery and hopefully being able to find a different approach. Well to my surprise my insurance did me no good here and to top it all off I did not qualify for anything else because insurance companies want nothing to do with TMJ patients. So I started working at a grocery store for the benefits, it took about 4 months but I finally got them and now I have the trouble of finding a new Doctor. This has been a difficult task because I live in Lake Tahoe and this is a small town. We don’t have any doctors who specialize in TMJ treatment.

I just recently got referred to a maxillofacial Doctor in Sacramento. I was wondering if anyone has heard of a Dr. Lou Gallia?

I have an MRI tomorrow and will hopefully have an appointment to see him soon. If not could anyone recommend a Doctor in the northern California region?

Thank you,

Sherry