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abby320 · 05-03-2003, 04:23 AM

I've had what up until now I would have called a mild case of TMJ. I have had limited mouth opening range and soreness of jaws periodically. I also have neck muscle problems that is worse at times and then will be better sometimes. I moved two weeks ago and since then have felt a lot of tension in my jaw and neck area. A week and a half ago I pulled the crap out of my neck and hurt for about 5 days. Well the past two days I've had incredible tighting/soreness in my jaw and I have to rearrange my lower jaw to get it to open correctly (if that makes sense). It has freaked me out enough to investigate all this which led me to this board. I have to admit after reading so many of the posts although informative I'm scared to death. For the first time I noticed when I open my mouth I hear a very faint clicking. I tried sleeping on my back last night but between being so uncomfortable and panic-ridden I couldn't sleep. I'd appreciate any advice as to what I should do today to help relax the muscles and then what you recommend I do next to help prevent this from getting worse. I'm scared that after having a mild case for 5 years that I've waited too long. Thank you.

HRevero · 05-03-2003, 07:28 AM

Hey abby you kind of sound like me.
I have had tmj for 6 years and was in pain and i was undiagnosed. Now in the last 3 months my jaw will lock itself. The pain has gotten a lot worse. I use to think my pain level was a 10 out of a scale of 1-10 -10 being worse. Now I wish I could get to a 10. I had to stop everything I was doing because anything (and nothing) will lock me up.
My advise to you is get it looked at to see what type of tmj you have (muscle or joint or disk). See if you can go to physical therapy for it. Get tests
done when you can.
As for the meantime try ice for your neck and jaw area - it might be able to calm it down. keep moving your jaw around slightly. My pt tells me to do finger spreads : with one hand push your top teeth's bottom with your thumb while pressin your lower teeth's top with your pointer finger and stretch. hold it there for a few second and release it. She tells me to do this throughout the day to get my jaw used to opening a lot.
Heather

CK92009 · 05-10-2003, 09:32 PM

Hi Abby,

I wanted to reply to you and let you know that you may not worry that you have waited too long! I had tmj really bad for 9 years(1991-2000). I had clicking, terrible pain, lockjaw, and problems lining my jaw up correctly in order to open my mouth. It was awful. I didn't know what to do. In 2000, I moved from Delaware to California and after one month, my TMJ disappeared and has been gone for a little over 3 years now! I came to the conlusion that mine was totally related to stress and taking myself out of the environment I was in and becoming very happy made it all go away. Depending on what kind of TMJ you have, maybe that could be a reason. Do you have any stress at all that might be causing this?

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