TMJ/Jaw Pain & Surgery
What is TMJ?
“TMJ is an acronym that stands for temporomandibular joint, the joint
located just in front of the ear on either side of the head. The
temporomandibular joints and surrounding ligaments and muscles hold the
mandible, or lower jawbone, to the temporal bone of the skull.” To read more Click Here
My TMJ Story Summed-Up
I suffered for years with TMJ. From when I dislocated it at
age 11 to when I had jaw joint replacement surgery at age 17. I had some other
jaw issues arise later on in my early 20’s, but first I want to talk about my original
jaw problem.
The story of how my jaw was dislocated is kind of funny and stupid.
I actually dislocated my own jaw with my hand. I was sitting in the backseat of
an old car as I tried to see how far I could open my mouth. It was at that
moment we drove over 2 sets of rail road tracks, which caused me to yank down
on my lower jaw. (The shocks were bad in the car) At the time is briefly hurt,
but it went away. About a week or two later a load popping noise started every
time I opened and closed my mouth. Once I could not even eat chips without horrible
pain in my jaw, I went to the doctor.
To make a long story short; I went to lots of doctors and
TMJ specialists and none of them figured out my jaw was COMPLETELY DISLOCATED
for over 1 year. I have tried more treatments then I care to count to help with
what they thought was “just muscle pain”. However, none of those treatments
could fix a dislocated jaw. I will list some of the treatments I did below.
After 4 to 5 different doctors I found one I like named Dr. Michael
Warner (TX). He tried 2 jaw joint reconstructive surgeries; as my both jaw
discs had adhered to my jaw bone and the ligaments were stretch out of shape.
We think I have a connective tissue disorder but have yet to pin point which type.
By the time I turned 17 years old; my lower jaw had receded
back over 1 ½ inches. This completely erased my once great jawline. The sad
part was, not even my mother or I noticed how far my jaw had gone back; that is
until I was gathering photos together. (See Photos Below) That
is when I got an MRI that showed my TMJ joint were no longer there! Only my jaw
muscles were holding my lower jaw in place. During this 5 year span I had been
told not to chew my food, which is part of the reason we didn’t know how bad my
jaw had gotten. The only thing that could be done at this point was a TMJ joint
replacement surgery.
I had my jaw joints replacement surgery on Dec 7th
2006 in Texas. Dr. Warner did such a wonderful job that surprisingly my jaw
pain was improved after a 6 hour long surgery. I didn’t have to have my mouth wired
shut and in fact they had me start to move my jaw first thing! I stay in the
hospital only overnight, before being discharged.
It was a long road even after jaw surgery as I had to work
at getting my mouth to open up all the way and learning to talk and chew.
Negative Side Effects
My head swelled up about the size of a basketball, but that
went down.
Nerve damage
in right upper eye lid and eye brow. I could no longer move my right eye brow
up; it could still come down a little. Also, my right eye lid could not close fully;
so when I shower soap can get into my eye. My eye does dry out more as it stays
partly open when I’m sleeping; totally worth it to get rid of the jaw pain!
Nerves Crossed:
Later on, my nerves crossed as they healed and when I chew on the right side of
my mouth, my right eye winks! It is a little funny when I forget to tell a date
that I have this problem, and they think I am flirting with them over dinner!
No Wrinkles:
My right side around my eye doesn’t seem to be wrinkling as much as I get
older; at least compared to the left side. This I guess could be a good or a
bad thing.
(Note: I did get
some treatments later on that help this problem about 70%, I’ll write more about
it later)
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| There are photos of my jawline before TMJ joints degenerated (Left: 2002), how far my bottom jaw went back (Middle: July 2006), and 1 week post-opt TMJ joint replacement surgery (Right: Dec 2006) You can also see how Dr. Warner hid the scar in the hairline, around ear, and jawline. After a couple years no one could tell I had been cut. I'll post a picture of my scars shortly. |
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| Surgeons diagram for my jaw surgery. Left in black lines shows the outline of my face, jaw, and teeth pre-jaw surgery. Right has before surgery jawline in green; with the projected profile out come over lay in red. you can see how far forwards my jaw will be moved. |
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| CT with Contrast Front View of Head 2014. This is 7 years after my TMJ joint replacement surgery and only 3 months before I have a second even larger jaw surgery. You can see that one jaw joint is lower than the other compared to the grid lines across the image. I started to have problems chewing on one side as it would torque or wrench the other lower joint open. This caused a lot of pain and i just started chewing on one side of my mouth. |
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| CT with Contrast Side Head View 2014. You can clearly see the screw holes on this side view. They are the darker spots on the lower jaw joint replacement. |
Note: Finding a
good Jaw doctor is so important! My family paid out of pocket for Dr. Warner
instead of going to Dr. Bates who was covered by my insurance. On my first
meeting with Dr. Bates, he walked in, hit me in the head while saying “get use
to pain” and telling my mother, “Sit down and shut up.” He was also going to
cut me across my cheeks to replace my jaw joints! Unlike Dr. Warner who hid the
scar around my ear and jaw line. So don’t settle when it comes to your health
care! Even if you have to take out a
$20,000 loan, it is worth it. I’ll go into more detail on my Bad Doctors
page that’s coming soon!
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