Metal Mouth Message Board

I have a very complicated case. Due to a skeletal abnormality and a tremendous amount of destabilizing dental work throughout the years my bite finally collapsed. The first indication of this was pain and muscular swelling on one side of my face. It was a very long and difficult diagnosis as you can imagine but my docs have recreated the chain of events. The first step to correct this was to find a "stable bite". This was successfully done with a splint. It also corrected my forward head posture and allowed me to stand straighter. This new position has caused the muscles to go into total spasms in the head/neck region since they're not used to this new position. I also have difficulty breathing as my chin has retruded. The splint has caused my entire body to "tip" to one side. One hip takes the load when I walk and the muscles are quite enlarged on that side. I was told I will need ortho to close a large open bite followed by some type of jaw surgery. In my present state of muscular dysfunction both outcomes are unpredictable and I was told to focus on therapy before discussing anything further. Has anyone had to deal with orthognathic surgery with severe muscular issues? TMD, cranio mandubular dysfunction, dental distress syndrome? This is a tough one.

I have TMJ disorder as well, which is why I'm having the jaw surgery to correct my bite. I used to wear a splint 24 hours a day (only taking it out to eat) and would be in extreme pain if I left the splint out for more than an hour or two. Since I've been wearing braces this has actually gotten a lot better and the muscles have settled down a lot.

The only medication I'm on at the moment is tryptophan (which I take a night) and I've found this more helpful than the other combinations of drugs I've been on over the years to deal with the pain. This might be something to look into.

Physio and massage therapy help as well. If you can find a massage therapist in your area that deals with tmj issues that would probably be best, they can do techniques inside the mouth to ease up the muscles around the jaw plus techniques on the rest of your body to help balance everything out again.

Also, if you don't have it yet, pick up this book: "taking control of tmj" by Robert Uppgard. It takes a whole body approach to dealing with tmd. You can order it from amazon for a decent price.