i went to a specialist on friday and he said i am suffering with tmj but the pain is desperate unbearable i had previously been told i was suffering with tn??
Does it feel like a tooth ache in every tooth? Or electric shocks in your cheak or eye?
yes the pain starts in jaw then i get severe ear pain electric shocks in my cheek up to my temple its comes across to the corner of my mouth under my jaw and into my neck
What kind of specialist did you see and what kind of examination did he perform? TMJ disorder is a vastly over-diagnosed and imprecisely defined medical entity. If you wish, Ninny, you can send me a note on my net gateway at ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■. I'm away from home now, but I have some authoritative articles on my home PC that may help you to either validate or appropriately question your specialist's findings.
Go in Peace and Power
Red
Dear Ninny,
I was misdiagnosed with TMJ between the years of 2003 and 2009. An MRI ruled it out.
However, one day while researching TMJ and facial pain, as I often did, I ran across the symptoms of "Atypical TN", and was astounded that they fit what I was feeling so much more than the symptoms of TMJ.
Not all TN patients experience the shock like quality pains. That is a Type I, Classic TN symptom.
TMJ sufferers, most of the time, will feel "popping" when they chew, or sometimes their jaw may get stuck. These things never happened to me.
However, if testing, whether x-ray, or MRI confirms that you have TMJ, it is a better diagnosis than TN or ATN, as a lot of the time, it is successfully operable.
I would ask the same question Red asked, I suppose, "what kind of examination did he perform" to arrive at this conclusion?
Your friend,
Stef
a very simple examination really measurments of my jaw with a little triangle thing that was about it really said i was clenching my jaw alot so put me on a diet of soft food basically no chewing it does feel much better since i havent been chewing but he wants to start weening me off the tegrotol medication im on but im nervous about that??
it was an oralfacial and facialpain specialist i saw
A little "triangle thing".... Riiiiiiggghhhttt. You're sure he didn't just wave his arms over your head and count the bumps on your cranium? Good Grief!
If you'll send me an email note, Ninny, I'll get back to you with an article that illustrates how an effective diagnosis for TMJ really must be done. This doesn't sound like "it". As far as I can tell from 17 years of doing research for people with face pain, any kind of pain that shoots up into your temple really isn't likely to be TMJ at all. So get a second opinion before you taper down on Tegretol. You can have BOTH TN and TMJ, in case your present doctor is unaware of that reality.
Regards and best,
Red
Have you seen a TN specialist? So many dr's dont know or have a clue. My dentist told me TMJ-had to have a tonsilectomy and adnoidectomy (AWFUL for an adult), so she could do TMJ surgery. Then a crown on my bad tooth (A bad old cavity job- yeah right!) all got worse and worse- thank God I went to my primary physicial who diagnosed my with TN- thus my new journey with Neuorogists and Neurosurgery. Thank goodness I figured this out before and jaw surgery. I feel that dentist was a self-motivating TMJ diagnoser to do more surgerys and improve her record. Good luck, please get as many dr opinions as you can from TN specialists. Get a Fiesta MRI- it will show if a vessel or artery is dancing with and beating up for nerve. I did that and had my MVD 2 weeks later! Taa daa!
As I have written elsewhere, we discovered with the TNA National Patient Survey in 2001, that the average face pain patient sees six doctors before obtaining an accurate diagnosis of their pain. Doctor education (and dentist "RE"-education) needs to be high on the list of steps needed to address this category of pain treatment.
Regards