Chronic Pain

I have had chronic facial pain since april 1996. It started with burning tongue and then led to bilateral neck which felt like swollen glands. I have been thru every possible Dr and was basically diagnosed with facial neuralgia. I was on Methadone for 10 yrs (after everything was ruled out) and for the most part out of pain and feeling normal. I went off of it with a new Dr in january of this yr so I would feel if the injections he wanted to try would work. That is when my teeth and jaw started hurting. I cancelled the injections so that I could get my teeth examined and get whatever was needed to be done before the injections. Well, when I cancelled, he assumed that I was only wanting medication and dropped me as a patient. Now it feels as if all my teeth are aching and squished together, but there is nothing wrong with them. I was in a 2 car accidents 20 yrs ago, both face trauma, one to my bottom teeth and the other to the left side of my face. Now my jaw aches constantly along with my teeth, I don't have any popping or any noises when I talk or eat but I do have alot of muscle pain in the right side of my jaw, underneath my chin, my neck, my ears and sometimes my right arm aches. I am doubting the neuralgia now and have an appt with my dentist (yet again) to get a referral to see if this is TMJD. My new dr is into accupunture and ear therapy, homeopathic type treatments along with regular meds. So far the other treatments have not helped. The other treatments include "detoxifying" with colonics and chelation.... which are both pretty pricey and not covered under my insurance (nor is the accupuncture or ear therapy). It is nice to finally find a place to hang out with others who understand....

hey hang in there. there is hope. you just have to find the right doctor. pm me and ill send you referrals to docs that have helped me a ton. Im sure that the doc that dropped you just dosnt know what hes doing. Im right here if you need anything. you can get my email here i think but anyway its dyan.matteson@gmail.com.

let me know how you are doing

Dyan,

thanks for the vote of confidence, i seriously don't know how you all do it! I feel on the edge daily but this is so nice to have somewhere to go to get info and words of encouragement. I would PM you but i can't figure it out. i just got onto this site a few days ago and i am a little backwards on some things. i did go to my dentist yesterday and i have an appt with a oms on may 20th, he is not one of the preferred for my dental but i still have a little time to look around and make some calls. how does everyone do it with the acupuncture and massage and splints... i am struggling now with it all financially and with time away from work. i did get fmla approved so they fire me for this. luckily i have a good boss. hey thanks! and if i can figure out the pm thing i will do that. i hope all is well with you, i would like to hear about your journey as well.

go ahead and email me----you can anytime that you want to. dyan.matteson@gmail.com Ill tell you anything that you want to know

Chelle_

Take a deep breath… You don’t need to have a popping, clicky jaw to suffer from TMJ, but you should know that the symptoms of TMJ mimic a lot of other conditions. The first things I suggest you do is go and see your primary care physician and ask them to do a full blood work up on you, including the usual suspects (RA, Lupus, Lyme,).

Before you go to your next appointment, any appointment, you need to take some time and write everything down no matter how random it seems. If you suffer from something like IBS… even though it seems totally unrelated, it’s not. Part of the problem with getting an accurate diagnosis is that we, as patients, make assumptions we shouldn’t. It’s going to take a few days, because you will add to it, but you have to do this. Try and describe the different layers of pain as best you can. If it burns, itches, feels like a hot poker, sand, gritty, broken glass… try and be as descriptive as possible. Your doctor will be able to assess things more accurately with this information.

I have been the alternative route… actually, I am still involved with it. Has anyone suggested you could have Mercury Toxicity? Is that why they are suggesting the chelation? There are several alternative therapies that could help. One thing you may want to talk to them about is the “Meyer’s Cocktail”, which is an IV infusion. While I have been doing IV Vitamin C for specific reasons, I have found some relief from it in combination with the far-infrared sauna. Other alternative modalities have also shown promising results, but nothing is a stand-alone miracle cure. It is usually a combination of things that works.

I am glad that you were able to detox from the methadone successfully. Although this may seem like a horrible turn of events, it’s actually allowing you to get to the root of the problem rather than masking it (there’s that silver lining I am always looking for). Please keep in mind that you may want to seek more than one opinion where a TMJ specialist is concerned. There are many schools of thought out there. You can see 3 doctors, and get 3 totally contradicting opinions. It can be frustrating!

Please ask questions. We are all here to help you through this. PM me any time if you need help. In the mean time… breathe!

Please keep us posted…………………….