Hi there,
It's recently become obvious to me that I have ATN. I count my blessings that the pain is only intermittent and never give up hope that I may one day be free of the disorder.
Like most of us, I experience variations in pain from day to day. Thankfully I have relatively pain free days but when I get the bad days it can send me to a dark place that it's a struggle to pull myself up out of, even though I know that they are the "flip side of the coin" and I must have bad days in order to know what it's like to have a good day (Trying to be philosophical here)
One thing intrigues me though.
I only developed the condition some time after an injury to my jaw. I got all the symptoms of TMJD first, like teeth not fitting together properly/clenching and then it was only months after that I woke up with the worst cheek pain ever.
Since this all began I've had some conservative treatment for my TMJD (Arthrocentesis/Joint Wash out), but it's hard to know if it's helped. My most recent MRI last month shows that my right TMJ is displaced and not reducing (Full report below).
Yawning seems to be one of the things that can set off stabbing pain in all divisions, and it just so happens that this can stress the TMJ, so I'm guessing there is a relationship between what my TMJ is doing and the Trigeminal Nerve.
Also I can wake up sometimes with really bad TN and it seems to be because my jaw has kind of deviated to one side because I'm a side sleeper and my jaw has literally fallen off the pillow.
I recently saw the top TMJ surgeon in the UK (He is one of the 10 consultants licensed to carry out jaw joint replacements here) and when I described my TN symptoms to him he was dismissive that this would have anything to do with my TMJD.
He said that just because my joint was showing displaced on the scan it didn't indicate a problem because lots of people have displacements in their jaw and don't even know about it.
He is recommending that proceed directly to Pain Management who'd give me Anticonvulsants to quieten the nerve.
I'm on Amitryptaline at the moment (100mg) which I know is helping and I can tolerate. However I'm wary of going down the route of further drugs due to the side effect profiles. Don't get me wrong, being pain free is my primary goal and if I have to take these other drugs I will force myself to endure the side effects, but I want to ensure that I've exhausted other avenues before doing so.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and may everybody's low-pain and pain-free days be numerous and long.
ATBFN,
Lukey.
My TMJ MRI reading for those who are interested:
The right is anteriorly displaced in the closed mouth position and there is no evidence of reduction in the open mouth position. There is limited anterior movement of the right mandibular condyle.
Normal appearance of the articular disc on the left. There is however limited anterior movement of the mandibular condyle. The appearances suggest a half open mouth position.
No joint effusion.