J-man

Hi everyone,

I have a question which I would be interesting in getting feedback on. Here it is : "How you do know whether the symptoms you are having with your Tmj condition are a sign of something 'good' happening or something 'bad' happening ?

I know that generally speaking, pain, discomfort, and clicking are bad signs, but are there times when they can be signs of healing, rather than signs that your condition is getting worse? Is it possible for pain to sometimes be a sign that healing is taking place ? Of course in most instances, this would be a result of you having done something to start the healing process (eg started using a splint which makes your muscles, joints, etc more comfortable).

The main reason I'm thinking that pain might sometimes accompany healing, is that with a Tmj problem, there is often damage to the joints, and as a result 'muscle splinting' takes place. Muscle splinting means that muscles go into spasm, in your body's attempt to prevent injured joints from continuing to injure themselves further. But it seems like if your jaws are restricted to a more limited range of motion for a long period of time, and then healing begins to take place, (through a splint etc), then this would mean that suddenly your muscles, joints etc, would be expected to do things which they haven't been asked to do for a while. It seems like in that sort of situation they would react by saying, 'woah, I haven't had to do this sort of thing for a while'. This is similar to how people who have experienced broken limbs etc, might encounter pain, fatigue etc, as they engage in the process of rehabilitating their unused body parts back to health.

There's something else I'm wondering about as well. In talking to a dentist recently, he reminded me that the typical progression of symptoms for Tmj patients, as their condition becomes worse, is from having no joint sounds, to joint clicking, and eventually back to having no joint sounds, as the jaw joints become more damaged.

So my question is this, if you reverse the process, and go from badly damaged jaw joints, to jaw joints which are functioning fairly well, as you receive treatment, does this mean that it would be fair to expect jaw clicking once again...rather than few joint sounds ?

I'd be interested in what other people think about these ideas. I'm wondering if it might be helpful to know whether or not a certain degree of pain and joint sounds are normal and to be expected, after treatment/healing starts to take place.

Have a great day and God bless !

John

[This message has been edited by J-man (edited 07-25-2003).]