maddy11
28-07-16, 17:25
I have been facing TMJ like pain in my left and right sides of face, along with an invisible force at night, which pushes my upper gum and teeth sideways (sometimes rightwards and sometimes leftwards) especially when I take a deep breath or when I bring my upper and lower teeth together so that they touch each other, while I lie down on my back. The pain's nature is that it occurs usually in the right ear, and goes down the edge of my right jawline. It sometimes happens in the right ear too. It also gets worse when I work on the computer or mobile phone for long hours and my cervical region becomes stiff. Sometimes, my hearing ability also goes down for a few minutes in one of the ears before recovering back
The pain and pressure become better when I take strong muscle relaxants,
HISTORY/CHRONOLOGY OF THE PROBLEM:
This problem started 3 months back when I came down with oral herpes and did a 45-day long course of Dispersible Prednisone and anti-viral Valacyclovir. There wasn't any noticable amount of facial palsy (my eyebrow area used to twitch, which has now gone away) present then, and the pain and invisible outward and sideways pushing force on my upper gums and the part of skull attached to upper gums started. Also, before the Oral Herpes episode, I used to sleep on my right side for entire night, for 1 year, and didn't chew with it either. As a result, my right chewing muscles are thinner as compared to left jaw muscles. Also, now when I lie down at night, I feel that my jaw 'aligns/slides' more to the left side as compared to right side.
Also earlier, for the initial 2 months out of past 3 months, the problem was only in my chewing muscle of right side of jaw, but after I did some isometric exercises of the jaw by looking at the internet, I started having pain in the joint, ear pain and pain that went down right from my ear (both left ear and right ear) to the cervical along the edge of my jaw touching the neck.
However, during the time I was doing the isometric jaw exercises, I stopped putting night-bite guard, because of which I think my muscular pain in the right jaw muscle went away.
All the pain/invisible pressure has been happening for over 3 months now.
TREATMENTS I'VE TRIED:
A doctor gave me a night-guard to avoid bruxism, but it tended to make my problem worse or didn't benefit me at best.
My TMJ pain gets resolved completely when I take muscle relaxants like Chlorzoxazone, or psychiatric medications: Clonazepam, Risperidone and Fluvoxamine, which were prescribed to me by a psychiatrist.
Please tell me what you people think is the root cause of this problem and to which specialist doctor should I show this.
POSSIBLE ROOT CAUSES(?):
Could it be trigeminal neuralgia/sinusitis/muscular damage/fibromyalgia from extensive use of prednisone and valacyclovir for treating oral herpes
Could the pain be because I sleep with my jaw open, on my back and without tossing/turning to sides, for the entire night?
Thanks.
Could it be that due to the jaw isometric exercises, my TMJoint has become a little inflamed and a little lavage and/or steroid injection in the joint will relieve the pain/inflammation?
Could the pain (which is mainly on my right side of jaw and which started after I sleeping on my back since 3 months ago) be because of this 'muscular atrophy' or 'change/fibromyalgia in jaw/shoulder/neck muscles due to bad posture' or 'wrong alignment of the jaw due to sleeping posture for 1 year?
SOME MISCELLANEOUS POINTS:
1.) It feels that my right shoulder is at a different height than my left shoulder, and it feels that there is more tension in one of my shoulders than the other.
2.) When I smile wide such that my teeth show while smiling, my lips' right corner opens up noticably lesser than my left corner.
3.) I have a feeling that the problem in my right side of face is more because I work ONLY with my right hand on the computer, like holding the mouse, typing, etc. I think that tenses up the muscles in my right hand and shoulder and increases the pain on the right side of my face. Also, I keep only my right elbow on the arm-rest of chair while doing so while my left elbow droops on left side without being supported by any arm rest.
4.) When I tap on my right TMJ, my forehead twitches A LOT. Is there a nerve in the area that is getting impinged.
5.) It feels that my right shoulder is at a different height than my left shoulder, and it feels that there is more tension in one of my shoulders than the other.
6.) When I smile wide such that my teeth show while smiling, my lips' right corner opens up noticably lesser than my left corner.
7.) Is there a Voveran injection that I can inject into neck muscles to relax them?
8.) Is there an 'Range of Motion test' (in which an orthopaedic doctor asks us to make certain physical movements of the neck, along with the usual jaw movements that the Dentist does to diagnose TMJ Disorder) to find out if my TMJ pain is neck-related.
9.) When I lie down and put my head to the bed a little fast and it collides with the bed, then I hear some 'small bone' in the left side of my head go 'tick-tick'
.
The pain and pressure become better when I take strong muscle relaxants,
HISTORY/CHRONOLOGY OF THE PROBLEM:
This problem started 3 months back when I came down with oral herpes and did a 45-day long course of Dispersible Prednisone and anti-viral Valacyclovir. There wasn't any noticable amount of facial palsy (my eyebrow area used to twitch, which has now gone away) present then, and the pain and invisible outward and sideways pushing force on my upper gums and the part of skull attached to upper gums started. Also, before the Oral Herpes episode, I used to sleep on my right side for entire night, for 1 year, and didn't chew with it either. As a result, my right chewing muscles are thinner as compared to left jaw muscles. Also, now when I lie down at night, I feel that my jaw 'aligns/slides' more to the left side as compared to right side.
Also earlier, for the initial 2 months out of past 3 months, the problem was only in my chewing muscle of right side of jaw, but after I did some isometric exercises of the jaw by looking at the internet, I started having pain in the joint, ear pain and pain that went down right from my ear (both left ear and right ear) to the cervical along the edge of my jaw touching the neck.
However, during the time I was doing the isometric jaw exercises, I stopped putting night-bite guard, because of which I think my muscular pain in the right jaw muscle went away.
All the pain/invisible pressure has been happening for over 3 months now.
TREATMENTS I'VE TRIED:
A doctor gave me a night-guard to avoid bruxism, but it tended to make my problem worse or didn't benefit me at best.
My TMJ pain gets resolved completely when I take muscle relaxants like Chlorzoxazone, or psychiatric medications: Clonazepam, Risperidone and Fluvoxamine, which were prescribed to me by a psychiatrist.
Please tell me what you people think is the root cause of this problem and to which specialist doctor should I show this.
POSSIBLE ROOT CAUSES(?):
Could it be trigeminal neuralgia/sinusitis/muscular damage/fibromyalgia from extensive use of prednisone and valacyclovir for treating oral herpes
Could the pain be because I sleep with my jaw open, on my back and without tossing/turning to sides, for the entire night?
Thanks.
Could it be that due to the jaw isometric exercises, my TMJoint has become a little inflamed and a little lavage and/or steroid injection in the joint will relieve the pain/inflammation?
Could the pain (which is mainly on my right side of jaw and which started after I sleeping on my back since 3 months ago) be because of this 'muscular atrophy' or 'change/fibromyalgia in jaw/shoulder/neck muscles due to bad posture' or 'wrong alignment of the jaw due to sleeping posture for 1 year?
SOME MISCELLANEOUS POINTS:
1.) It feels that my right shoulder is at a different height than my left shoulder, and it feels that there is more tension in one of my shoulders than the other.
2.) When I smile wide such that my teeth show while smiling, my lips' right corner opens up noticably lesser than my left corner.
3.) I have a feeling that the problem in my right side of face is more because I work ONLY with my right hand on the computer, like holding the mouse, typing, etc. I think that tenses up the muscles in my right hand and shoulder and increases the pain on the right side of my face. Also, I keep only my right elbow on the arm-rest of chair while doing so while my left elbow droops on left side without being supported by any arm rest.
4.) When I tap on my right TMJ, my forehead twitches A LOT. Is there a nerve in the area that is getting impinged.
5.) It feels that my right shoulder is at a different height than my left shoulder, and it feels that there is more tension in one of my shoulders than the other.
6.) When I smile wide such that my teeth show while smiling, my lips' right corner opens up noticably lesser than my left corner.
7.) Is there a Voveran injection that I can inject into neck muscles to relax them?
8.) Is there an 'Range of Motion test' (in which an orthopaedic doctor asks us to make certain physical movements of the neck, along with the usual jaw movements that the Dentist does to diagnose TMJ Disorder) to find out if my TMJ pain is neck-related.
9.) When I lie down and put my head to the bed a little fast and it collides with the bed, then I hear some 'small bone' in the left side of my head go 'tick-tick'
.