I's been a week since my oral surgery, so I thought I'd post an update.
The reason why I went for the surgery was that a new oral surgeon I consulted believed, after examining my x-rays, that some of the filling material had gone loose and was moving freely around my jaw possibly causing more neuralgic pain, also, one of my root canals seemed overfilled.
When the surgery was over the surgeon said that what he found in was worse than he expected based on my x-rays. The surgeon removed the scar tissue and cleaned out the filling material which had crumbled in my jaw. He also used surgical diode laser before he stitched my gums back up.
Now is the eighth day since the surgery and the good thing is that the tension in my gums/teeth is gone. I know this may be a temporary improvement until the scar tissue starts to form back up in a matter of weeks or months but I'm hopeful that maybe the tension won't return (it was really bothersome).
I still have pain where it originally was before the surgery and I still get funny sensations in the affected half of my jaw (especially tingling). This may stay or improve once my brain "realizes" that the cause has been removed. I want to hope for the best but prepare for the worst...
Unfortunatelly, since the surgery my TMJ has gone worse, but I kind of expected that as any dental work makes it worse.
For me the most important thing now is that my pain is not worse now after the surgery than it was before I went in. It may or it may not have helped, it's early days still to be able to tell, but when I saw the material which the surgeon removed from my jaw I was happy I had it done, it looked awful.
Thank you all for your support which you've given me throughout my decision making and recovery!
It's nearly a month since the surgery and the tension hasn't come back, which is great. Also, I seem to be getting more "good" days than I did in the past, not completely pain-free days, but something like a 1 or a 2 on the pain scale...it's such a relief! Still, there's always this little warning light flickering at the back of my mind, as I'm sure some of you know it, saying this can't be true and that the pain will surely come back etc. If I continue to do well in the next days I'll try to lower my dosage of Lyrica and see if the pain hits me again like it did the last time I tried that. Hopefully, it won't!
Well, the surgery I had was to remove the scar tissue and accessive filling material from one of my teeth (I had a surgery in my lower jaw in March which aggravated my problems, so this was an attempt to improve things). It appears that the infection in my jaw is gone (MRI and blood tests), so osteomyelitis is out of question for the time being, although a couple of doctors considered it a possibility based on my medical record.
Unfortunatelly, the pain and the tightness around my teeth has returned; for me it means this very likely is a neurologic problem rather than anything else... I'm expected to see my TMJ doctor sometime in the upcoming months, my TMJ disorder always gets worse at the same time my ATN does. Also, I got back the results from the Institute of Experimental Stomatogy...it appears that I'm allergic to most metals and they recommend I had my amalgam fillings removed, I'm not that thrilled about it as I don't think that's really causing the problem, but it's something to think about, anyway.
Take care,
Oldriska
Ravit (Pandora's tooth) said:
don't lower yet your meds, be more patient, if you are good right now dont test it yet
I know you once talked about osteomyelitis, but doesnt sound like this is the surgery you made, if i am not mistaken, i just get so confused
Hey, Oldriska... About TMJ complicating things you may consider a realy good physical therapist, I just heard there are even all sort of physical therapy not just one, like let say mekenzie helps some, cold laser helps some, but i cant say that i heard that from one of the dental cases, at the top from TN 2 ATN. But like you, we are in a stage we are willing to try all, we are so hurt, that if we will be told - smear a poo on the tooth, we will do so.... amalgam it's a bet, there is such a thing that amalgam cause current in the mouth (google amalgam current, if you havent already done it).What I am realy pissed of about, is there is an article that Cleo have, that seem that came from another far away, better century, I was never offered that, and now its too late for me, but when they found out I have a neuroma, WHY not cut it off and suture back with nylon or something the two ends of Lingual nerve or Foramen ovale nerve, what ever was damaged???? I wish i knew why they are not doing it, because at least in israel they are doing it for some ohter parts in the body, but it has a critical pieriod to be done and if not, the two amputated parts of the nerve grow just not toward each other...I am not saying you have a neuroma, just venting about myself when i hear dental and sugery... keep the good fight from the little time i know you i know you are a fighter
I made a little confusion it's inferior alveolar not Foramen ovale, all those terms make me feel like i am about to make an physiology exam and i just lost 5 points...lol
Cleo, you didnt get my point right, maybe i didn't describe it well. I know this article you published is old, about a study of 222 cases with LN or IA nerve damage, if i recall the study even started in the 80's. But it shows an operation of removal of the neuroma that i guess i and you have, and i wasnt offered that operation at all, when they finally unedrstood the horror of the damage, So i feel like that's a shame, it's a bummer they didn't do this operation on me :(, So it seems like, if it will ever to be done, it will be not on my watch, like a better times, but maybe they didn't apply this surgery because they found it's not that promising after all??? i dont know, all i know my doctors never talked to me about it....I wish they did
(You sent me once in another thread the article, with a very interesting study, yes indeed an old one, just don't understand WHY it's not applied, you have there informative pictures, it's just seem ironically more advanced than what we are offered for now, or more accurately in the first year)
If still i am not clear, i will look for the article and upload it
So in what condition sould you be in? i saw some have pain and some pain with numbness, can you specify? if it's o.k with you, I was sure it's for me and you back then.....and in the conclusion of the study they show the surgery can help greatly restore the painless sensation if and there is a big if, the surgery is done sooner in the first year with better chances in the first 6 months, age is a factor too, it's better to be younger than 45. I do understand if we were not all offerd that in our early stages of injury, there is a catch. But I just saw the other day, here in Israel a health show, and it was about i think, neuropathy in the hand or something, and the doc talked about catching it on time, and how they open this part and suturing the two cut endings of the nerve with some sort of artificial replacement to myelin, could be with some sort of nylon like it was in this study you uploaded, and like that there is a better chance that the two endings will grow toward each other, it's just very hard, i guess, to detect in time, that the injury is indeed neuropathy b/c this operations have limitied critical period, I had the assumption we were years ago, suppose to be having such a thing, but I realy don't think those surgeries are done a lot and if at all in the face, and i wonder why? :(
I have more of the burning in my teeth jaw so what causes this scar tissue? nerve damage???? if it is scar tissue would it have been seen on mri
Cleo said:
ok, yes i remember that now. Here's the thing. those pictures are serious nerve injuries. there is nothing promising when a nerve is found in one of those conditions..conditions such as those would cause way more than burning in just 1 tooth. the only promise is that your trigeminal nerve damage has been identified not really fixed.
I understand better thank you Cleo. Yes for all I know my nerve was crushed or cut, we realy don't know...So how do you know? what surgery you had, to see yours was crushed, this one in the article?
No, I don't think so....mine was nothing too dramatic, the doctor just cut the flesh right below the lower front teeth to expose their roots (or what was left of them). He then scraped out some old scars left from the previous surgeries and removed all of the filling material which was stuck to the bone instead of being inside the root canals. He then used laser of some sort and that was it. He didn't go near the main nerve, or at least I suppose he would have told me if he did. So I really don't know what the state of the nerve is, I can only tell there is a neuropathy (or neuralgia as me neuro calls it) because of the tightness and the tingling and sometimes pain but nowhere near what it used to be, luckily!
Cleo - here is Israel as much as it's a very very developed country (me and Ravit are from Israel) doctor have no knoeledge of such surgeries . and we are lost.
on what medical base would a docor open the jaw to "check" for Neuroma's. i was diagnosed with Neuroma.. but doctor said "live with it"... and other saw my CT and said there was a "suspected area".. darker than other .. .but said "going in" to that area can cause me to lose the ability so speak.
Can people here tell us Names of doctors who really we can trust on these Jaw operations ?
As i see it me and Nir are really lost in a system that i am a shamed to reach for their help, it's like asking help in the midden ages, it's like i was condemned for life of misery in the age of 21 because i did a filling, is it a joke??? I have no alternative
Oldriska your story reminded me i once read of something called like neuromuscular dentists (alternative dentists) that take off all the amalgam fillings and then they put a Laser on the patient face where the tooth is, for healing ( I even was told a respected university in my country is working with a laser too, i didn't call to see if it's right, but seemed weird to have some relation to university as an alternative medicine) . For all I know, you havent took your amalgams out, right? it's another thing right, they saw that your root canal in the X-ray is dripping?
I also read in medical dentists journal (conservative medicine) of laser helping, but again should be applied in the first year frame, Oldriska you past that right?
Wow Cleo I wish i had been more lucky or more wise to do that surgery in the beginning!!! But like Nir sayed, no one seemed to led us to even consider it, vice versa we were told : the more surgery the more damage
I don't know what to do, Cleo i would like your input about stem cells therapy for our condition, i value your commentes very much
Bummer I wrote a long comment and lost it. Ya Oldriska sounds like she has had apiceoctomy, but with Laser???
Cleo since that surgery (in the article) is not relevant for me, I past the first year far long ago, and I appreciate your knowledge very much, what is your stand about stem cells for our condition???
Or is there another surgery for neuropathy that you know about? Taking somehow scar tissue even though long time has past? (I know that's a long shot, but got to ask)
BTW i wanted to upload the article so it will be transparent to others but it dosen't go well
I don't think the stem cell therapy is available for neuralgias or neuropathies in the face/head area as yet? I recall I read somewhere such a therapy shows a promise but is more of a sci-fi at this point in time, altough stem cells are used in other parts of the human body.
I believe you right, though they do try or are doing an attempt creating nerve cells. Just the other day, I saw in Israel a company named Pluristem, and they have a section for nerve pain, I send an email and asked to participate in clinical study, but was declined. Moreover I am in contact with MS (multiple sclerosis) stem cells company from Canda and USA and we spoke about injecting to me, in the ganglion, but I am not sure about it. What I do know is the researchers are trying to find therapy for Parkinson and ALS and MS, and Spinal Cord Injury, you can find in this nerve section a lot of compenies runing to find something literally runing, and i can understand it's a big market, and we are not as a Trigeminal suffers, but in general nerve damage is such a huge market that i don't understand why not rushing that too??? the amount of people that suffers from nerve pain is huge!!! let alone the one that had cancer....I see here and there some attempts that some Universities do, but one will think if neuropathy is so frequent, and researchers can make a lot of money from that, why very few attempts???
