How Conor Cured His TMJ Disorder
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Hopefully this story of how Conor cured his TMD can bring you some hope and insight.
"I was recently on a forum for sufferers of gastritis (an issue with the lining of the stomach) and I saw somebody comment "the healed ones don't come back", referring to the fact that there are more negative stories than positive ones online, as those who cure themselves generally just move on with their lives. I was immediately transported back to my time as a TMJ sufferer, and the days, weeks, and months I would spend consumed by my suffering on similar forums reading similar comments and clinging onto any shred of positivity I could find. I had always said to myself that I would be a success story, and in the end I was, but I was one of those people who moved on. I would love to share my story now, in the hope that anyone who was like me might read it and either follow my route to success or even just take a small bit of positivity from it.
From the age of 19 I began to develop TMJ issues. It began with clicking and popping sounds in my ears when I swallowed, which would later develop into full blown Eustachian Tue Dysfunction (ETD). At around 22/23 I began to experience pain in my jaw and surrounding muscles. This pain was annoying at first, and would flare up occasionally, but gradually it became more and more consistent and intense. Soon it was constant, and took over my life. I would wake up in the morning and have a few seconds of blissful relief (I was never a teeth or jaw clencher in the night, in fact I slept with my mouth open - more on this later) and then it would just spiral from there, until pain radiated intensely from my face and jaw muscles. My jaw joints themselves were stiff and painful and cracked when I chewed. I was utterly miserable, withdrew from friends and family and was unable to hold down a job.
Obviously I became obsessed with curing myself. I spent the majority of my time on the internet googling symptoms and treatments, and I began trying as many as I could. I went to an expensive orthodontist who built splints for me that held my jaw in a "healthy position" and which I wore at night time. This made it worse. After lengthy and unsuccessful treatment he said he couldn't help and prescribed me antidepressants for the pain. I took these, with no success. Looking back this still strikes me as an unbelievably irresponsible treatment approach with no focus on underlying causes. I went to another orthodontist who suggested filing my teeth down. I didn't have the money for this treatment at the time, thankfully.
With my pain only worsening, I began to try more alternative treatments. Some of these included: chiropractic therapy, ROLFing, osteopathy, craniosacral therapy, Atlas vertebrae realignment. Nothing worked. I was in constant pain, wasting money and my life was falling apart. Family and friends did their best to sympathize, but didn't understand TMJ issues at all and it often felt like they thought I was exaggerating. My last big plan was to save up money and travel to the States, to try an incredibly expensive treatment that involved 3d computer modelling of my jaw and bite, and then subtle adjustments to the teeth to create more balance.
That is, until I discovered something called myofunctional therapy. I can't remember exactly how, but somewhere along the way I had begun to research oral posture and discovered that my own was far from ideal. I had braces for 5 years as a teenager, and although my teeth had been straightened, my bite was unusual in that the top teeth didn't close over the bottom as they should. In fact, my teeth only closed together at the back, there was a small gap between my front and bottom teeth. It always felt to me that the relationship between my upper and lower jaw was determined by my bite, and it never felt comfortable to me. Most importantly though, I discovered that my tongue was not where it should be in my mouth. When not involved in eating or talking, the tongue should be sucked to the roof of mouth, where it provides support to the upper jaw and presses outwards on the teeth, giving them their shape. I tried to start to rectify this myself, but found it difficult.
I did a google search and found one (one!) myofunctional orthodontist in the country (I'm Irish). It was a 3 hour bus journey away, and I made an appointment immediately. The surgery was run by a couple, a trained orthodontist and myofunctional therapist. From the second I met them I realized I was in the right place. Their combined knowledge on everything TMJ was unparalled, and after some tests they told me that both my jaw joints were dislocated, and that I had a low grade tongue tie. Essentially, the frenulum (the thing that attaches your tongue to the bottom of your mouth) was too tight and restricting my tongues ability to go to the roof of the mouth where it should be. When babies are born this is often obvious, and they fix it there and then in the hospital, but in my case (and in the case of thousands of others) it was less obvious, but no less damaging. Because I had been unable to adopt proper oral posture with my tongue in the roof of my mouth from a young age, my facial structure had not developed properly and I had a very narrow upper jaw. This, I was told, was why I had developed crowded teeth, spent so long wearing braces, and had then developed TMJ afterwards. My entire jaw was unable to support itself, and the joints themselves were no displaced because of my face shape.
So, what was the treatment? Well, firstly they made an appointment for me to get my tongue tie fixed, which was a local anesthetic procedure that took about 10 seconds and two snips. With this sorted I began myofunctional therapy, to train my tongue to function in the correct way. I had to relearn how to swallow, and to breathe through my nose instead of my mouth. I cannot stress enough how lifechanging those two changes have been. In conjunction with this therapy I also was fitted with an appliance called an ALF, a thin metal band that slips behind the teeth and gently pushes outwards to create more width in the upper jaw. I would take the bus every month to get this adjusted so that it would continuously be expanding. It sounds intense but it was actually very very gentle and barely noticeable. Nothing like normal orthodontics.
It was slow going, but gradually I began to notice that the gap between my teeth was closing, and soon they came together. My jaw began to feel more stable, and pain began to fade. The tongue was taking over, and allowing all the muscles in my face to relax. My face began to change, as did my jaw line. This process took about two years all in all, but after about a year I was no longer consumed by pain and had returned to a normal life. The relief of not dealing with chronic pain was INCREDIBLE. I still have two dislocated jaw joints that will never fit together as well as they should, but I do not have any pain emanating from either and I never think about it. In short, I am cured from TMJ and have been for about three years now.
The causes of my TMJ issues may not be the same for everyone reading this, but I hope that there will be someone who takes something from this lengthy post! If you have had braces as a teenager, are a mouth breather (either at night or in the day), have poorly occluded teeth or a narrow long face, looking into oral posture may be of huge benefit to you. Even if you don't have these issues, focusing on the strength of the tongue as a supporting mechanism can really take the focus off the jaw joints and hopefully ease some of the pressure on the facial muscles that are basically exhausted and sore from trying to readjust all the time. There will be an end to your pain guys, and I really hope that every one of you can get to that stage, and then return to the forums with a success story like I finally got around to doing!"
Note: We cannot endorse any of the treatment methods discussed in this blog. Take treatment advice at your own risk :)
