TMJ Symptoms on only one side?

I have a question that I hope someone can help me with. Can the majority of TMJ symptoms affect only one side of the head and neck? I have been having pain on the right side of my head for the last year and a half. The symptoms are: eye pain (behind the eye and above it) with blurred vision at times,bloodshot eyes, sore teeth, temple pain, ear pain and itching, feeling of fluid and fullness in the ear, ringing in both ears, pain under the jaw line near the ear, sore throat, feeling of that something is stuck in my throat, problems swallowing, and pressure on my throat, pain at the base of the skull that radiates down my neck and into my upper back and shoulder, numbness of the finger tips on both sides, a sore itchy scalp, and occassional jaw popping and locking, insomnia, teeth clenching. Almost all of these symptoms are exclusive to the right side except ringing in the ears, sore teeth, teeth clenching, occassional jaw popping and locking, and sore itchy scalp.

I have had a CT scan of the brain, sinus' and my neck and all have come back negative except the sinus scan showed a mucous retention cyst in the maxillary sinus. I have also had extensive blood work done that was also negative. Yesterday I saw a different ENT then before and he told me that I had TMJ and he wanted me to go see an oral surgeon that specializes in TMJ.

It could be TMJ, because about the time the problems started happening my son had stood up and accidently hit me in the jaw. I had never been hit in the jaw that hard before. It hurt real bad in the area of my right ear at the time and the pain went away in about 5 minutes. I didn't feel anything more for the next week or so. Hence I had forgot about it. The problems started probably two or three weeks later.

I know a lot of things seem to fit a TMJ diagnosis, but I have never heard of someone having TMJ with symptoms primarily on one side. I know a few people that have TMJ and none of them have heard of this. The ENT did not know the answer either. Does anyone know if it can affect primarily one side?

I think there are a lot of tmj sufferers that are affected on one side only. For me mine is on the left side. My right side though is affected by my lower jaw's deviation towards the left however - the more I pull towards the left the more the right side aches. The reason it is fairly common is b/c our faces are not 100% symetrical - which means there are slight variations from one side to the other in terms of where the discs and joints are located and how the teeth and jaws align - all of which affect the facial and neck muscles and their ability to function together. I would suggest you see the OS or a tmj specialist as recommended and maybe a NUCCA chiro - it could be that the jolt to your jaw misaligned your cervical spine a bit - a slight misalignment of the C1 or Atlas vertebrae can trigger just about all the same symptoms you are experiencing as well.

Hi, I am new to this but my left side of my jaw is more sore than my right and also ringing is really bad in the left but not the right.My pain in my neck is bad on both sides and then travels down back on both sides of shoulders.Also my MRI showed that the disk displacement was worse on the left so I guess that might have something to do with it.Then my physio therepist says my right feels worse than my left and alot of my pain could also be coming from myself and that I should go see a phyciatrist that really upset me.I do not know how she would know when she is not with me at night when I am in so much pain.So if the mri shows one side is worse is that how your body will be affected?

Hi

Mine all started on my left side and the temple pain ,ear pain neck and shoulder pain have all been bad on that side but my right side eventually had the same symptoms but much milder its like when you get a stone in your shoe if you left it there you would start limping then you leg would ache then you would start to walk different then your back would ache then shoulders etc etc thanks to Thelma very helpful posts i have learned that the whole body can be affected

Chonger /take no notice of those negative comments from your physio
This week i had twitching in my hand so went to the Doctors he was more interested in finding out what traumatic event had brought on my TMJ when i informed him that i was a lucky person and had no traumatic event that i could think of he wouldn't let go i came out of the surgery questioning my own mental heath !!
Time and time i have read how some of the medical profession are treating us he was almost saying i had brought it on myself !!!

I had to laugh (as much as I could given that my mouth barely opens) - even though I am used to having drs say this could all be psychosomatic (sp?) - last month I was seeing a new cranial sacralist and at some point during the therapy session she started to ask me about traumatic events or accidents that occurred in my childhood - so I am thinking oh- she is trying to determine the root cause of the pain - nahhh - she then started to address me as Little Thelma-Louise - that Little Thelma needed to tell Big Thelma that it was not her fault, that she is OK and that Little Thelma did not mean to hurt Big Thelma and that Big Thelma needs to embrace Little Thelma - on and on she went. The last thing I need to do is to encourage development of multiple personalities - its bad enough I don't feel like the old normal self that I used to be. The first dr that I went to at the start of my tmj told me to see a therapist as well - my sister went ballistic on the guy - I gave him a guick smirk and a wink - as if to say - yeah that's what they tell everyone when they don't know what is wrong - its so much easier than saying they are not as intelligent or as informed about tmj as they pretend to be. Its an ego thing. Once I feel that is how a therapist or dr feels then I know to move on - I don't have time to entertain that baloney - I'm in too much pain and time is passing by too quickly - so it more important that I move on and hopefully find someone who can help my physically - I'll take care of the rest.

Thanks for that Thelma Ive been smiling all morning at that story (with my hand under my jaw of course lol) i cant believe i let myself be bullied by this rude uniformed GP . have a good day everyone take care

Thanks for the advice. I am going to see the O.S. and see what he has to say. I don't know what a NUCCA Chiro. is. I have been seeing a chiro. that uses force on my neck since shortly after everything started. I haven't noticed much difference though

Hello, I wanted to share with you what I have found after much research and trying to find someone to help me. I urge all of you to visit this website: [removed] -- then click on "members". It will ask you to enter your state and then you will get a list of doctors who treat TMJ. I have found one in Syracuse NY who is both an ENT and a dentist. Therefore, if needed, he can perform surgery. He, by all means, tries to avoid surgery and treats TMJ with other measures first, i.e., jaw exercises, ethyl chloride for pain and a NSAID to alleviate the inflammation. Then if it isn't successful, he will do injections into both sides of your jaw. This is where I am at and so far no success. But just some interesting info -- I am a huge wimp and passed out with the injections so he prescribed a valium for me to take just before the next set --about 10 hours after the valium, I could open my mouth to its fullest extent -- it's very stiff, but can be done. I have gone 3 days now on the same valium and still feel relief. I think 1/2 of my TMJ is muscle related and the other half is disc displacement. I am due to have an MRI soon. I would really try to persuade people to not have surgery if they haven't done any other measures of treatment as I have read that surgery only causes more problems down the road, thus creating more surgeries. Try to find someone who really specializes in it. Dr. Sall is who I see and there are many across the country. he has treated it for 20 years and gets 20 new patients every week and guarantees everyone that they he will definitely help each and every one of us. Hope this helps some of you ...

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