Is anyone here with almost no condyle and flat joints?
I am just wondering if anyone else here is as severe a case as I am with almost no condyles and flat joints on both or even just one side. If so were you this way when you started treatment or did the treatment cause it. I was actually this way when I started treatment in early 1999. I have read and researched every report(from several different independent doctors), model and xray taken from day one. There have been lots of them. No surgeries did this to me. I don't see how anything other than replacing what is missing and what caused it to go in the first place is going to fix my problem. I see alot of bad things here and I am trying to understand all aspects of the surgeries and treatments. Can a few of you, particularly senior members, tell me how you started off, what you have done, and how it did/did not help. I am scheduled to have complete bi-lateral joint replacements and split osteotomies in March. I don't really see how I have much other choice. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have had splints, braces, arthroscopy, and physical therapy. The arthroscopy actually benefited me for about two years. Sorry to ramble, just a bit confused and curious. Any advice would be appreciated.
Autumn,
I have posted on this thread twice and lost my reply both times, third time it may work, uggh!
My condyle on the right side is a stub due to the implant, bone against metal. What was I thinking when I agreed to this??? My third surgery, the OS said I had so much scar tissue and arthritis built up, that he didn't know how I had functioned. His words, "I had the jaw of a 90 year old". In spite of all the physical therapy, I am back to a opening of 10mm. With open joint surgery, scar tissue is a given, not to mention that arthritis "usually" develops. The screws in my implant are loose, it is hanging up and needs to be removed. Of course my OS wants the money up front before he will remove it, no insurance... Such compassion huh Money hungry, greedy, SOB! His words were, I should be grateful, I had a few years of relief. I hope, for your sake, that your doctor doesn't have this attitude if things don't work.
I went to a TMJ conference two years ago in New York. There were so many people whose life was all but destroyed by joint replacements, implants, etc. it was heartbreaking to say the least. Facial paralysis, eyebrows that don't work, eyelids that no longer open, people who drooled all over because of nerve damage, numbness in their chin. Anytime you agree to this surgery, you are taking a chance of things like this happening. You sign a surgical consent before hand so IF it does happen, you can't do a thing about it. The main thing I got out of that conference is, that there are no safe implants! When they stated that, I actually cried. Looking around that room, there was nothing else to do, but cry.
I am not trying to change your mind as that is your decision to make. I guess the thing to ask yourself is, can you handle it "if" things are worse? Are you prepared to have further surgery because it usually follows. The joints will last around five years, then what? Make sure you will still have insurance coverage if you need further surgery. I know you get to a point where you think things can't be any worse and take the plunge. That is what happened to me. What a rude awakening, things can and did get worse. Like I said, I would welcome the pain I had before surgery, compared to what I have now.
Take care,
Elaine
Symptoms of TMJ include pain and dysfunction that can radiate throughout the entire body, multiple headaches, and pain in the face, sinuses, ears, eyes, teeth, neck muscles, back, and leg cramps. Clicking and grating in the jaw joints, inability to open or close the mouth freely, and difficulty in chewing and swallowing are also often evident. All of these pain and dysfunction symptoms can be temporary or chronic (continuing for longer than six months) or intractable (never-ending).
This vast variety of symptoms makes a correct TMJ diagnosis difficult. Additionally, most TMJ symptoms mimic and overlap many other disorders, such as Myofascial Pain, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Compound this with the lack of universally accepted scientific research, and TMJ has acquired the name of "The Great Impostor," and has been described in the press as "A Medical Mess."
Although all surgeries have risks, TMJ surgeries are especially risky have proven mostly unwarranted or unsatisfactory. An initial surgery can often lead to more. Except in life-threatening emergency situations, it is strongly recommended that TMJ surgeries be avoided or conducted only after multiple independent opinions. Additionally, certain jaw joint implants have been reported by the Food & Drug Administration to cause serious long-term medical problems, and rules have been tightened on their usage/approval.
There is currently no universally recognized medical discipline or accredited medical specialty that addresses TMJ. Jaw joints, due to their location in the oral cavity, are the only joints in the body that are considered both medical and dental joints. They are commonly and mistakenly isolated from whole body health and "assigned" to the realm of dentistry. Temporomandibular joints must be perceived as part of the whole body system and treated as are all other joints in the body. It is urgent that the medical profession take an active role in the diagnosis and treatment of TMJ. A change in perception would have several important consequences:
Current treatments often focus narrowly on the jaw and neglect other physiological systems in need of care. The desired therapeutic outcome is often not achieved, and many patients are left in serious pain or with serious dysfunction.
Autumn,
I started having X-rays in the 70's, Panarex's,
Tomograms, and finally MRI's in the late 80's.
One Surgeon that has looked at all of these films, said that my condyles looked like toothpicks, but that they had probably been this way the majority of my life. Everytime I've had surgery, they have smoothed them off because they get jagged on the joint end. I don't have very much left. I'm doing OK with them like this.
The first MRI that I had, they ask me to come back. They thought the machine had mal-functioned. They could not tell what they were looking at. After, the second time, they decided that my entire joint area (both) did not look like anything they had seen before.
After my first Open-Joint surgery, I like Elaine, was told, they were similiar to 90 year old joints. (I think they must do all of their research on 90 year old cadavers)
It's the consensus among a few Surgeons, who have decided to to get a little honest, that most Arthrocopic Procedures give you about 2 years of relief. The problem is that, then you need more and after several, they will tell you that due to scar tissue and other damage (caused by these procedures) they can't do anything else.
My Dentist/Tmj Specialist, says that the only surgery that is possibly a must, is removal of totally destroyed and dislodged or dislocated disc. Also, some really bad bone deformaties have to be surgically corrected.
Small and/or very fragile and thin condyles are common in women. I had one Surgeon tell me about 6 years ago, that mine had to come out, with total replacements. I had one tell me that I had been living with them most of my life and they were holding up pretty well and had not changed very much in the last 20 years, other than the Surgical Damage. (I took the advice to live with them) I still have pretty much of what I had 6 years ago.
Maybe a second opinion would be helpful for you. I had my disc removed 5 years ago and that has become tolerable, most people can adjust to that. A lot of people like Elaine, who have had the bones altered or removed and foreign material put in, are in a terrible mess.
The problem with these procedures, if they don't work, is that there is not an acceptable "NEXT STEP".
There is not at this time, anything else they can do.
I hope you find the answers you need and can get relief without surgery.
Re: Is anyone here with almost no condyle and flat joints?
Hi my names judy im from the uk I have no condyle on my left and a little on my right and an waiting to have a double joint replacement Have you had yours yet and how did you get on? well I hope hope you reply judy
Is anyone here with almost no condyle and flat joints? 
Money hungry, greedy, SOB! His words were, I should be grateful, I had a few years of relief. I hope, for your sake, that your doctor doesn't have this attitude if things don't work.
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