As the mother of a 26-year-old daughter with end-stage TMJ, I hope that our experiences and input may help to bring about much needed change in the diagnosis and treatment for those suffering with TMJ. My daughter’s problems began soon after wisdom tooth extraction and slowly progressed. By the age of 20, in her second year of college, TMJ pain had reared its ugly head with a vengeance and impacted her once “normal” life. The pain affected her ability to focus in school and started to impact her ability to function day to day.
Approaching her 21st birthday, she started to significantly lose function of her jaw. Her facial muscles became incredibly tight, her mouth opening began to shrink, her ability to chew diminished day by day and her pain was “off the charts”. She became nutritionally compromised as well, and began to lose weight. Pain, despair, and anxiety were now a part of her everyday life. In her fourth year of college, majoring in Nursing, she was forced to take a medical leave of absence in an attempt to manage her pain and identify the root cause of this agony. Read full story.