It has a name!

I am happy to report my teeth pain has a name..."Temporomandibular joint and muscle disorder", otherwise know as TMJ. One Tuesday morning, I woke up with what I can best describe as muscle pain in my jaw, a tell tale sign of TMJ. That, along with the fact I had sensitivity to cold on the top jaw only, was a pretty good indicator this is what the problem is. Also, I grind my teeth and clench my jaws at night, which only aggravates the situation. I had also seen an increase in the number of headaches I had been experiencing - not bad ones, but enough that I noticed them - which is also a side effect of this.

As far as we can tell, it appears all was aggravated by the filling...that my bite was just far enough out of alignment enough for the grinding and clenching to become an issue. As I thought, there is not a darn thing wrong with any of the teeth up there (but I am loving the KILLER mouthwash my dentist gave me to make sure there was no yuckies up there). I still do have a sinus infection, and my ENT appears to be correct in his assessment that the facial pain and the teeth pain were not related.

So for now, I am taking ridiculous doses of Ibuprofen to get the inflammation down in my teeth and help with the pain in my jaw (like 800 mg 4 times a day). I will also continue on the antibiotic to get rid of the sinus infection. Long term, I will have to wear a mouthguard type of device at night to help with the clenching and grinding.

Yeah...at least now I know I was not crazy..at least about this. I was starting to feel like I was a hypochondriac. I really am not excited about the amount of medicine I am swallowing at this point...I don't take this much medicine at once in 4 years, let alone in a day! But hopefully it will help.

Hope everyone is well!