Cymy Sue

Delilah,

Occasionally, an MRI is misread. One of our members had this to happen recently. Hopefully this is not the case and I don't won't to worry you, but it does happen. If you aren't satisfied about this, I would have someone else look at it.

You can have horrific muscular problems without disc or joint problems. There is ususally a cause or irritant, but it could be somewhere else.

With the SCM's and the Traps involved along with the masseters, there may be a problem in these areas.

My TMJD symtoms have been completely under control for nearly a year. Almost no pain, spasms or anything. I still wear a splint and will most likely for a long time.

I had severe shoulder pain and muscle spasms due to a bone spur. In Sept., it was just shoulder and arm pain. As the months went by, the spasms increased and went down my side, across my chest and back and about a month before surgery to remove it, the spasms went up my neck and face. They were so bad, it pulled my bite off a little and I had some minor joint pain.

I would have been scared about this, but the progression was slow and I could tell the pulling was coming from my shoulder. Not a return of real TMJ problems.
As soon as I had surgery to remove the spur, it all stopped.

It's hard to understand how all of this can happen and if you don't have anything to relate the beginning of the pain and spasms to, it's confusing, but these symtoms can be muscular and the correct splint will help.

I was in an awful mess with muscular problems last year that I thought were primarily still caused by nerve damage, no disc and other surgery related problems. I was never told anything different.

It seems I had healed from the surgeries, the damaged nerves were not causing so much of the problems and I was mostly having muscular problems and had been for many years. There had been irritants along the way that I can pinpoint such as surgery and no disc, etc. But at this point, it was basically muscular.

The splint designed for me was a bottom fit to support my joints and passively reposition muscles. It worked very quickly and like a charm.

I had been seeing a Massage Therapist prior to getting the splint and a great deal of the muscles spasms below my face had been helped and were under control.

I have also read from many different sources that TMJ problems can be completely muscular. I don't understand because mine started many years ago with damaged joints and disc and I've reseached along those lines, but many Doctors agree with this. I have just realized in the last year how the muscles were causing so many problems, pain and symtoms.

I hope for you it is. Muscular problems in most cases can be treated very successfully with the appropriate splint. If you're not already, you may need Theraputic Massage or PT to help with the SCM's and Traps with someone qualified to work with you. I hope your appt. goes well and please update us on his opinion.

Cymy Sue