#107 “OMG, I Can’t Stand the Pain Anymore”

The title of this article is a quote from a recent patient sitting in our examination room during her TMD/TMJ consultation.  She had endured 20 years of headaches, earaches, neck pain, jaw pain, ringing in her ears, subjective hearing loss, vertigo, upper back and shoulder pain, arm hand finger tingling and numbness, and inability to open her mouth completely.  These are the usual symptoms experienced by patients who suffer from TMD/TMJ. Not all patients with this disorder experience all these symptoms.  But most patients experience an increasing number of them over time.  TMD/TMJ is a progressive disease often starting in early life with simply a clicking sound in the jaw joint.  Over time, the noise turns into a louder pop associated with intermittent pain, which then progresses into some, or all of the symptoms previously noted.   

At first, it’s easy to ignore the clicking sounds because there is no pain  produced.  Most often, the first symptom to show up is frequent or recurrent headaches.   Headaches are the most common symptom of TMD/TMJ, and if severe enough will be the first symptom that sends the patient to their doctor, convenient care clinic, or emergency room.  Most commonly, the headaches are diagnosed as “Migraine Headaches” and treated with some form of pharmaceutical.  This may or may not produce relief. 

TMD/TMJ is not only a progressive disease but is cyclical in nature 100% of the time.  In other words, the symptoms cycle on a rather routine basis, increasing in frequency and intensity over time and adding more of the symptoms experienced as the disease progresses.  Occasionally the disease can be associated with some kind of traumatic event to the face or the jaw, but most often the symptoms begin appearing innocuously in adolescence with clicking in the joint and almost always ignored.   

TMD/TMJ is primarily a disease affecting females with its prevalence considered to be 90% females and 10% males.  It is primarily a female disease because estrogen exacerbates inflammation.  This scientific fact has been known for more than 50 years but generally ignored by both the medical and dental professions. Fibromyalgia is a female disease for the same reason. Chronic inflammation within the jaw joints creates each of the TMD/TMJ symptoms.  So, you can see why TMD/TMJ is seen most often in females. 

The patient’s remark noted in the title of this article had gone through 30 years and several varieties of treatments including Botox injections, chiropractic care, physical therapy, multiple medications, and had by her admission seen over 20 different health care providers in an attempt to find relief.  Her experience with pain and frustration with the medical system was palpable. 

This patient went on to rapid symptom relief over a period of two months and wrote a complementary “success story” when she reached 95% of her symptoms gone.  This patient’s history and story is routine in this practice.  Our doctors and team members take great pride in being able to help the thousands of patients who have already experienced what we have discovered about TMD/TMJ relieving the symptoms using a simple non-surgical oral device and protocol. It is a unique system which is now being duplicated by other dentists, oral surgeons, and orthodontists throughout the United States. 

But our patients are not the only ones who state, “I can’t stand the pain anymore”.  I also entitled this article because I cannot stand the pain of seeing patients go through years and often decades of being run around in circles by the medical and dental establishment.  The physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, physical therapists, and chiropractors are trying everything they know to treat the symptoms.  The problem is, they don’t know what we discovered about this disease and are limited to applying only what they already know.  The patient quoted in this article is one of thousands seen by our practice over the past 12 years who have been driven in circles by our current health care establishment.  I include myself by saying. 

                             “OMG, I Can’t Stand the Pain Anymore”