Yes. First experienced TMJ pain as a teenager and almost overdosed on painkillers while trying to get rid of it at 3AM. Still recurrs about 2-3 times per year, but I've now learned to feel it coming on much earlier and start loading up on codiene in advance.
I had it a long time and was not sure the pain was localized in the jaw (was it the neck, shoulders, back?) or even the extent to which there was a physical lesion or it was how my brain was interpreting things.
My dentist told me I was grinding my teeth and prescribed a bite guard and within two weeks the pain got better but became very definitely focalized in the jaw and I noticed ‘popping’ as a symptom.
It has been about 1.5 years since the diagnosis. last summer I went through a phase of throwing a lot of random food into a pot and hitting it with an immersion blender, getting shakes from Burger King whenever I felt like it, etc. I lost almost 20 kg.
I have been eating more normally since, it doesn’t bother me very often.
What sort of bite guard did you use? I clench my teeth like there's no tomorrow and I've discovered over the years that any bite guard that doesn't completely cover every tooth (on either the lower or upper arch) will eventually result in a supra-eruption of the exposed tooth, with drastic consequences for my bite.
Just one from the drugstore which you put in boiling water and then bite down on. It costs about $20.
It covers all the teeth on the top, but not the bottom.
My dentist said he could make one if that didn’t work out, but it did.
I’ve seen sketchy looking web sites by dentists who claim they can make something uniquely effective but it doesn’t look any different from the one I use so I don’t believe it.
