For the past 3 or 4 days, I have been experiencing severe pain in my jaw which has rendered me unable to open my mouth very far and, thus, unable to eat anything of substance. I was sure that my problem was a descending wisdom tooth. Not so, apparently. I called the dentist first thing this morning and he got me in rather quickly. Turns out that my TMJ (temporomandibular joint) is quite inflamed and that is what is causing all of this pain. It even hurts to smile.
Anyhow, the fix is to wear a dental "appliance" and to take some anti-inflammatory/relaxer drugs. Unfortunately, this "appliance" is a small little mouthpiece that fits over my two middle top teeth that keeps me from clenching my teeth together. Sadly, I now have an adorable little lisp. It sucks - BIG TIME! I can hardly understand what I am saying, I don't know how others will understand me. The doc said that since I involuntarily clench my teeth and am usually pretty stressed out, that these were the likely causes. Good news is that I should have fewer headaches now.
I have to wear this cute little device 24/7 for about 7-10 days or until the inflammation has gone down enough to not be painful. Then I will have to wear it while I sleep from now on. Real sexy, huh? I thought you'd think so!
2 comments:
oh no! I am so sorry to hear that. I hope gets back to normal quick.
I have a TMJ thing, too. Three to four times a week, I sleep with a little mouthpiece that goes over my top teeth.
How did I find out about this problem? After I paid $$$$ to have 3 crowns put in several years ago. I was grinding so much that it broke 3 teeth! So I hope finding out about this now will help save you down the line. PamH
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