Anybody Else Have A Sunken Temporomandibular Joint

[mnaha]

Recently I have been loosing more weight on purpose to try to be healthy but over the years I have not taken very good of my dental issues. As a result I have lost a lot of teeth and my bite has misaligned and it has caused me to have TMJ..

To get to my problem. I noticed today that one side of my face where the temporomandibular joint is located is sunken in. It is only on one side of my face. If it was both sides I would not worry but the fact that it is only on one side. I looked back over the past years and could see a gradual sinking in of that place but never noticed it until today . It doesn't matter if I smile or frown or move my jaws around etc.. the indentation stays. Its really weird and worrisome. It hurts a little but not that much but knowing its there really bothers me.

I can't get it off my mind and when I look in the mirror I feel like a freak. I have looked and looked and searched for a photo of at least one other person in google images that might have this issue or something similar but have found nothing. This really freaks me out. Is is maybe cancer that ate my jaw away or something really bad that is happening? Anybody at all have this please tell me. Im freaking out. Thanks in advance.

[mnaha]

Wow,76 readers and not one person with a TMJ issue causing their jaw to sink in? Geez I must have bigger issues than I think.. hoping and wishing someone reads this and says yeah mine is this way or knows someone that they can say ,yeah I knew someone like this or know someone like this.. Its really freaking me out..

[shelzmike]

Just an FYI, web crawlers like search engines and such register as views also, so not that many people have seen it. I don't think that it is a huge worry. I mean do you have any other weird symptoms that are actually symptoms and not panic or anxiety? Of you truly are worried, then ask a doctor about it honestly.

Mike

[MyNameIsTerry]

No one is truly symmetrical but if it is pronounced then the best thing would be for a doctor or dentist to take a look. If the dental work, the misaligned bite and the TMJ are contributing factors to this, they should very easily be able to tell you.

As long as the jaw, the muscles, the nerves, etc are all working fine, then unless it's disfiguring, it sounds like they would leave it this way unless it's perhaps detrimental to your mental health and then it could be a matter of treating it as a BDD issue (hence some therapy) and doing something from a reconstruction angle.

I really think this issue for a professional.

Some of the boards are pretty quite and people don't get responses. It's the same on the OCD and Benefits boards thesedays.

[mnaha]

Mike, yeah forgot about web crawlers. They do account for hits on something on the internet quite a bit. Thanks for reminding me. Terry, I think its from loss of teeth and jaw being misaligned ,plus im getting old and well... everything is working ok. Its just sometimes it hurts a bit in that area and also the nerves go a little crazy and twitch but other than that I suppose its no big deal. Also according to everything I have read, I have a severe case of tmj . My fault entirely as I did not make regular dental visits over the years and lost a lot of teeth and of course didn't know the loss of teeth affected you that way but should have. I suppose its a weird thing to ask here but so far in my life I haven't seen to many people with this sort of thing on their face but im an old man and things start doing weird things in the face and other places on the body especially when you lose weight and such. Thanks for your answer and sorry to everyone. I just forgot about web crawlers accounting for hits and suppose most people don't even concern themselves with such things and those that do get plastic surgery.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Then perhaps they can consider some form of cosmetic solution? Something that reforms that side of the face? They do that kind of work for people who lose sections of muscle in the face so perhaps they can for this?

[mnaha]

If it isn't a physical threat and doesn't hurt me..then I am to old to worry what it looks like. Im comfortable with it as I would be with wrinkles and age lines and spots..No worries. just was wondering if anyone else had anything like this but , I suppose if it works don't fix it..Thanks again for answering..

[MyNameIsTerry]

My dad has the same attitude as you. He had something cancerous on his face a couple of years ago, I can't remember which one it was now, and it was over one side of his nose. They removed it and applied a skin graft but it left his nose dented in on one side, perhaps a bit like what you are describing with your jaw? The offered him cosmetic surgery for it but he said the same as you, he's in his seventies so it's hardly an issue. He accepted it and it doesn't bother him. At first you really noticed it but thesedays I really just don't see it anymore.

If you boxed or played rugby (or football in your case), would you care? It would be the norm for those guys to have various things from dented in faces to cauliflour ears. They don't care, right of passage to them.