Posted by ksvt on December 1, 2000, at 16:34:14
In reply to Re: » ksvt, posted by CarolAnn on December 1, 2000, at 9:23:21
> CarolAnn - I was curious because I went through a year of having these periodic episodes of intense facial pain on one side of my face stretching from my gums to near the bridge of my nose. Lots of nights I couldn't sleep unless I was sitting up with a hot water bottle on my face. I saw a couple of different internists, an ENT guy, had 2 CT scans, went through a full range of allergy test and had a neurological workup. The neurologist simply decreed that the pain had no discernable source and he prescribed me tricyclics for pain management. I finally went to me dentist to be checked out for TMJ, and it took her about a minute to determine that I had a badly abcessed tooth. That this was a dental problem never crossed my mind because I had had a full set of xrays, (done by a different dentist) right before the pain started. Turns out I had a cracked filling which was patently obvious on the xray. I think dentist #1 never read the xray. One root canal and crown later, I am finally pain free, altho I too grind my teeth and this still causes problems particularly since, in my case, my dental roots and sinuses are too close. I have a great deal of sympathy for what your experiencing because the facial pain I had was more acute than anything I can remember. Altho I can feel pretty depressed about all I unnecessarily went through, at least my problem finally found a solution. I hope yours does too. ksvt
ksvt, I have a long history of grinding and clenching my teeth at night and have worn a 'night' guard for years. Early this year I started having chronic pain on the left side of my face. The official diagnosis is something like 'massiter' myalgia. it has to do with the jaw muscles being overworked and then over compensating for being overworked, which shortens them , sort of a vicious cycle. The pain is very far ranging, from deep behind my left eye to my left back teeth and jaw and on down the left side of my neck. treatment involves two new mouth guards (medical term "splints") upper and lower teeth, worn nightly or more often, which is supposed to help the jaw muscles "relax" enabling them to eventually lengthen out back to where they should be. I, as is typical for me, am in the doctor's words, "a difficult case", so will be starting physical therapy on monday to augment the splint therapy. And, (just to throw in a personal gripe), none of this is covered by insurance, as it seems to fall into a no man's land of being neither a dental nor a medical problem!
> I bet THAT was more then you ever wanted to know about a stranger's medical problems! Ha!
> CarolAnn
poster:ksvt
thread:49714
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001130/msgs/49769.html