Jaw Pain Treatment Experience of Dr. Spainhower’s Patient.
TMJ Pain Treatment Experience of Dr. Spainhower’s Patient:
Hello everyone, I’ve been wanting to post experiences with my TMJ Pain patients for all to read and learn from.
To read my reviews of TMJ Exercise products available online, go to www.TMJReview.com.
Today, Rita came in for the third visit to treat her pain, see, about three weeks ago, Rita came in with a not so uncommon story about having seen multiple Doctors ect. Here’s her story…
Rita began having facial and TMJ pain last November, so she visited her TMJ Dentist. He told her that she needs to hold her lower jaw forward (these are Rita’s words and may not be what the Dentist actually said). I told Rita…no, your jaw position should be back and up.
Rita repeated her story of having an appointment with the Oral Surgeon to have TMJ Surgery, although she canceled the Surgery the day before her surgery because her Insurance wouldn’t cover the surgery.
She then told me about the Nuerosurgeon that wanted to do surgery on her facial nerve on her left side of her face. She has had numbing there since last November. Her Nuerologist from the University recommended surgery and a “Ciber knife” treatment was performed to treat her symptoms.
Anyway, you get the point…many doctors and thousands of dollars later that she still has to pay off.
She has Dentures, and TMJ patients with dentures are difficult to treat. But I suggested that she take out her lower Partial denture because she only has front teeth of her own, and that would duplicate very well and anterior contact Splint. I was confident that that would help.
Two to three hours later, Rita called reporting agony pain. Ugh…what is going on I asked myself. So, I said come back in tomorrow and I’ll take another look. Well, a week later she came in and I said that I’d make her a splint. Yes, a splint that covered her denture.
I adjusted it appropriatley (so I thought). I’m thinking, THIS will reduce her TMJ pain! They made an appointment for a one week follow up visit.
I was hoping for the best and anticipating her return…
She came in and said that the splint made her hurt so much after 2 days that she couldn’t stand it anymore, so she took it out. Ugh again.
Well, I was talking about throwing in the towel with her, and then I said…you know…let me try it again, OK?
She reluctantly agreed.
I started adjusting the splint, and something started happening. Her lower jaw started to move back and up, more than I noticed before. What was happening was, that her muscle “Engrams” were releasing.
In lamens’ terms, it’s kind of like when a muscle spasm releases it’s spasm. Although in this case, the nerves sensed relief from interferences with the posterior teeth, so the nerves allowed the muscles to work more freely.
Anyway, after the appointment I felt that new hope was present.
One week later, she and her husband showed up (today June 4th), and she was gleeming with a big smile because her TMJ pain is gone, her husband was filling out paper work to have some work done on him.
Rita said that she hadn’t felt this good since November and reflected back at what would have happened if she had gone through surgery? Bad things of course. She even said that she even started to clean the cupboards again!
Long story short…It was difficult to find the right adjustment for a patient in the beginning, but with a bit of confidence in the TMJ pain basics on how the jaw works and persistance, then bam, Rita is out of pain.
That is a good day, every time that happens for someone. It puts a big smile on faces and you go home feeling good.
For more info on TMJ, go to www.simpleTMJTreatment.com.
Dave Spainhower DDS
