Wellness Wednesday - TMJ

The body gives you signals, are you listening?  Do not wait until it is too late to respond.  We are moving too fast through this life.  But what happens when life slows us done?

The one appointment that was pushed back would be the answer to all my suffering.  The visits had all been long, the results all disappointing, and in the end I was just so exhausted.  I drove across town almost everyday to try and find answers.  The Allergist had mentioned that she thought the dentist may be able to confirm what she only could assume.

I walked into the dentist office like a regular visit.  They took my symptoms and did the regular testing to include X-rays.  I sat in the chair just waiting.  And then the dentist comes over and says it's TMJ.  I felt like she had the mic, said TMJ, and then dropped mic.  As I picked up my jaw off the floor, I had a lot of questions....

Ladies and gentlemen, ever heard of TMJ.  (Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction)  What does that even mean? 

In simple terms, my jaw bone was jammed into my cheek bone.  My medical history does not show this being genetic and I had not had a jaw injury.  The next most obvious was STRESS.  But let's rewind, what were my symptoms:

-I felt a pain like an ear ache but different, in my left ear
-Chewing caused my headaches flare up
-Shooting pain in my face on my left side

The prime suspect was stress.  Stress was causing me to grind my teeth which I had never done before.  And when the dentist ask, "do you grind your teeth?"  You answer, "Um, I am asleep.  How am I suppose to know?"  Dumb question...next.

Due to the overload that I had allowed in my life, my body had started to fall apart.  I finally had answers.  But how do you fix this?  Yeah NO, to those of you who want to just smack me a good one to pop it right out.  Not happening.  A mouth guard was ordered and I will be wearing this for the rest of my life.  

So what was the lesson here, slow it down.  Let others help.  You may think you can handle all things, super person, but your body may know differently.  And now TMJ rules my world:

Timeouts R

My

Jam

This really was a really scary situation from start to finish.  It caused me to slow down but for reals.  The timeouts were great and allowed my body to heal.  The healing process was very therapeutic and very much needed.  

Do you visit the dentist every year?  Did you know you are suppose to go every six months for check ups?    Wellness dentist check ups may be covered with your insurance, so what is your excuse?