I have jaw pain, what are some suggestions?

I had a wisdom tooth extraction under general anesthesia on 1 June. To make a long story short, I had complications, which included bone fragments that were left in the wound. I had surgery last Wednesday to remove the bone fragments (the oral surgeon who performed this surgery told me it was very unusual for it come to this). I just came off six weeks of antibiotics yesterday. I have been feeling a host of symptoms, most which I think stem from the antibiotics.

However, my concern at the moment is my jaw pain as it has gotten worse in the last few days. It has presented itself as an earache initially, with doctor after doctor telling me that my ears are fine. Then the pain moved to my neck; so my neck is hurting, the sides of my head hurt and both of my ears are very sore and throbbing. Today I moved my head to the side and the right side of my jaw popped.

I just called Dental Access and was given an appointment to see a dentist tonight; however, the after hours is out of town and tends to be kind of pricey (around £20 return for a taxi). I already have an appointment with an osteopath Thursday morning (I saw him about my overall joint pain and muscle aches a week ago and his treatment seemed to help) as well as an appointment with an oral surgeon on Monday. I am quite inclined to wait a few days to see the oral surgeon on Monday. I would just really have preferred if I could have been given some information over the phone, but the woman said that was the purpose of the appointment.

Is there anything that others would advise for jaw pain until I can get seen by a doctor?

Sounds a lot like my tmj.  Heat on the joints may help.  Anti-inflammatory meds (ibuprofen works in a pinch).  Gentle massage of the area, sometimes I massage in a few drops of Olbas Oil or spearmint oil.  It helps to warm up and relax the muscles. 

Hope you're feeling better soon.

Sounds a lot like my tmj.  Heat on the joints may help.  Anti-inflammatory meds (ibuprofen works in a pinch).  Gentle massage of the area, sometimes I massage in a few drops of Olbas Oil or spearmint oil.  It helps to warm up and relax the muscles. 

Hope you're feeling better soon.

Wow, what a quick reply! Thanks so much for the suggestion. I'll go out in a bit and pick up some things.

Crabbit is probably right. It's hopefully just knock-on from the ordeal you've already been thru. However, please monitor your pain carefully and watch for fever and other signs of infection. The antibiotics may not have done the trick and it could have spread to another site (I say this because a family friend ended up with a bone infection after surgery once). It's likely I'm being totally off-base, but it's worth keeping an eye on given what you've already been thru.

Keep us posted!

Crabbit is probably right. It's hopefully just knock-on from the ordeal you've already been thru. However, please monitor your pain carefully and watch for fever and other signs of infection. The antibiotics may not have done the trick and it could have spread to another site (I say this because a family friend ended up with a bone infection after surgery once). It's likely I'm being totally off-base, but it's worth keeping an eye on given what you've already been thru.

Keep us posted!

Thanks for your message. I will check on my temperature. I hope that this will be temporary, that is for sure. Thanks for your suggestions; I will keep a note of my symptoms and explain them to the oral surgeon next week. I have noticed more and more that I have to be very explicit or else they will not take me very seriously. There is also this tendency for the dentist to tell me to see the doctor and the doctor to tell me to see the dentist.

zingy, what you've just described sounds very much like tmj to me.

my tmj was diagnosed when i had my four wisdom teeth (plus one other adjacent molar) surgically removed. it is now the bane of my existance. it has caused me so much pain that i have actually prayed to die.

i implore you to seek out a tmj specialist. no gp i've seen in the uk or us has done anything helpful for me, and every dentist i've sought help from has only made it worse.

i'm not trying to scare you, i just can't bear the thought of anyone else going through the years & years of horrible misdiagnoses that i've been through.

for right now, try applying warm, moist heat to the areas that hurt. do not put ice on it--this will make the muscles go into spasm & will cause pain. similarly, avoid drinking anything cold or iced.

i implore you to seek out a tmj specialist. no gp i've seen in the uk or us has done anything helpful for me, and every dentist i've sought help from has only made it worse.

Thanks very much for your message and practical suggestions. I found this website http://www.bsos.org.uk/about.html and the specialists appear to be charging around £120/visit. Does that sounds right to you? How did you go about finding your specialist?

Thanks again.

EDIT: Just to mention that my husband and I use Healthsure, which is an insurance plan that covers a certain amount of treatment; currently at the level we are at, one visit at the above rate would be covered.

just note that everything tmj specialists tell you isn't gold. I went to one for a long time and in the end everything he did was bad for my teeth. He put me in a titanium ortho appliance which ruined my teeth and it doesn't fix anything. When you take it out your teeth don't fit together at all (they fit with the appliance). I had to get braces after all of the thousands I spent at the tmj specialist to get my teeth back in place and my jaw pulled forward. I wish I had skipped the tmj specialist to begin with and just went to the orthodontist.

just note that everything tmj specialists tell you isn't gold. I went to one for a long time and in the end everything he did was bad for my teeth. He put me in a titanium ortho appliance which ruined my teeth and it doesn't fix anything. When you take it out your teeth don't fit together at all (they fit with the appliance). I had to get braces after all of the thousands I spent at the tmj specialist to get my teeth back in place and my jaw pulled forward. I wish I had skipped the tmj specialist to begin with and just went to the orthodontist.

You definitely have had a rough time with it. Well, I am just learning about this so I am not sure if I would need to seek out an orthodontist. It's all a bit confusing, really.

i found my specialist here through my specialist in the states. my american dr gave me a list of uk members of the tmj association. that's how i found mine here. i'll be happy to find the list for you if you want it.

this is the most important thing to know about tmj: there's no cure, there's no single specified plan of treatment. for every treatment that's worked for someone, it's failed someone else. so any doctor or dentist that tells you he can fix you for good has his head up his ass. believe me, i've been down that road too many times. this is a chronic, degenerative disease. it can be managed, the pain can be kept at bay for a while, but it always seems to get worse. it has changed a lot about my life, from the things i am able to eat to the fact that i can never be intubated if i require hospitalisation. the joints of my skull are now actively necrotising--the bones of my head are literally dying.

i ended up sticking with my specialist in the states because he was the first person in the medical industry in more than 10 years who actually believed that the pain i was describing was real. he didn't tell me i was stressed from uni & work, he didn't tell me i had migraines, he didn't tell me it was 'all in my head', he didn't tell me i was depressed. all of these were previous misdiagnoses. he told me what i had known all along--that the joints of my skull were deteriorating. and he also told me what i said in the previous paragraph--there's no set course of treatment that will work for all patients. but he was the first doctor who did anything to significantly alleviate my excruciating pain.

the route i chose was unbelievably expensive. i've posted about that before, so i won't go into it again. but insurance won't touch tmj. medical says it's dental, dental says it's medical, and the patient gets screwed between. i fought it tooth & nail, filed grievances with the state & everything, but in the end i was out of pocket $30,000.

here are a few links in case you want some more info:

http://www.jawache.com/about-TMJ.asp
http://www.tmj.org/
http://www.tmjfriends.com/blog/
http://forums.healthcentral.com/discussion/chronic-pain/forums/a/tpc/f/2781007/m/8881049?r=18410031#18410031

also, there are many different causes of tmj. I do think if you have a "fixable" cause then you can be fixed. However there are causes that can't be fixed. Mine wasn't caused by an accident or the like, mine is caused by stress over my lifetime. I was doing fine for a year after my braces, even though I had stopped wearing my retainers and my teeth shifted some. Then my MIL died and we had 2 hellish weeks where I got back all my old holding stress in habits and I thought I was dying. Its been downhill ever since. Just yesterday with all this pets stuff my teeth started hurting again just like that time. The only thing that will *fix* me is me fixing my stress or learning how to cope differently than tensing up all the time.

Good luck and I hope you find something that gives you some relief.

i found my specialist here through my specialist in the states. my american dr gave me a list of uk members of the tmj association. that's how i found mine here. i'll be happy to find the list for you if you want it.

It is just crazy what you have had to go through to get the support that you need so it means a lot you would help me out to try to save me from that. I would really appreciate it if you could pass me a copy of the list, if you can find it. I have been noticing those painful muscle spasms that you have mentioned; it often feels like I have a huge rubber band all around my face. I have taken a look at the websites, they are very helpful. I actually told my father about my jaw pain  (well, that is where the pain starts and it radiates in other places) yesterday and he told me as well that it sounded like TMJ and that my aunt had it; apparently a mouth guard helped her deal with it.

Good luck and I hope you find something that gives you some relief.

Thanks very much and I appreciate you sharing your experiences with me.

I saw the osteopath again this morning (last saw him a week and a half ago); he told me that my neck was one of the worst that he has seen. It is very tight. Consequently, he did not do anything too intense today, not to say that the manipulation of my tendons was comfortable. He wants me to come in next week and says that this is a problem that will likely need more investigating; i.e. MRI, blood test, and he will work with my GP to make sure something is done if it is needed.

I will be in Birmingham on Saturday and my MIL has arranged for me to see their family dentist to take a look at my mouth. Some of my stitches came out yesterday, but there are still some there and I would also like his advice on my jaw pain. I have an appointment with the oral surgeon on Monday; the one that did a less than adequate job on my first surgery. I will do my best to be assertive with him, although I am not sure how much he will actually do about the problem.

To be honest, this is really freaking me out. I have managed to get some studying done this week, which is great. However, I would like to do more. It freaks me out that so many of my joints keep cracking or popping, from my hips, jaw, neck, back, ankle, etc.

Once again, I appreciate the support here and hope to report good news about treatment soon enough!

I've had TMJ off and on in my life, and sometimes wear a teeth guard at night to prevent the pain and to prevent scraping the enamel off my teeth. Perhaps you should try that.