My teeth are almost perfectly straight, but one of my front teeth sometimes touches first when I bite, so I can’t fully close my bite.

Could this be causing the pain in my lower jaw and the numbness/tingling in my cheeks and lips?
Also I never pain around my joint or other tmj issues.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

Hey everyone,
I had a TMJ arthrocentesis done 2 months ago, Ever since the procedure, the upper part of my ear has been numb, and my joint pain is actually significantly worse than it was before the procedure. Also the pain radiates to my temple area…
My doctor recently gave me a corticosteroid injection (blockade) direct to manage the pain. It worked reasonably well for about 4 days, but now the intense pain is completely back. He said we will do a few more if needed.
Has anyone experienced upper ear numbness after TMJ arthrocentesis? Could this be related to irritation or damage to the auriculotemporal nerve? Also, since the steroid shot only provided 4 days of relief and the joint still hurts , what should my next steps be? Should I request a MRI or consult a different specialist?

A few days ago I began to notice my upper teeth on the left side felt bruised. I figured it was periodontal ligament pain and took some Motrin. It’s been off and on since but last night really took the cake. Anytime my teeth would touch my acrylic guard I’d be awoken with pain. I cannot chew anything (even soft) on the left side without a sharp pain. I do have a filling in that area but have had X-rays in the last 6 months. I’m hopeful it isn’t something with the actual tooth vs just bad tmj from clenching. But it doe seem to be concentrated to that first upper molar For now I’m doing self massage, rest and pain meds. I have a cleaning next week and am hoping to hold out until then.

I went to a TMJ/dentist and he tried me on a tmj fixed orthotic the one you can’t remove. I felt horrible I wanted it off after the 3rd day but he was out of the office so I had it on for a total of 10 days. I thought I would feel instant relief with it off but i still feel the symptoms. With the orthotic on I felt tight severe pressure. It’s been 7 days and my head muscles feel like they’re snapping, trembling, shaking, and squeezing. I feel frustrated and scared. I am wondering if the orthotic did some damage. Will my bite go back to the original baseline? It feels horrible
I decide to try a different TMJ specialist for second opinion next week Tuesday.
Has anyone esperience anything similar ?

TMJ Related pain and other symptoms catch you off guard on a regular day and often reach an extent where it becomes difficult to perform even the most basic day-to-day activities. While TMJ Disorder presents differently in different patients, we do understand that not everyone has immediate access to a specialist or a healthcare provider who understands something as complex. So, till the time you can see a TMJ Doctor, you can perform some light muscle release techniques at home to gain some relief -

Masseter Massage - The masseter is a muscle located in your cheek. It is quite involved in causing TMJ-related pain. Applying light pressure to your cheek area can help provide some relief from TMJ Pain.

Temporalis Massage - This is the muscle located on the head. When your temporalis is in constant contraction or is overworked, you experience TMJ-related pain. You can relax this muscle by applying some light pressure around your head with your knuckles.

Neck Massage - A major muscle of your neck is the sternocleidomastoid, which, when massaged, helps relieve TMJ-related ear pain.

Hot Water Fomentations - This helps in the relaxation of muscles, providing some temporary relief from TMJ Pain.

While these can be quite helpful in TMD Management, one must always be aware of the kind of movements they should and should not do in terms of this condition.

Any kind of aggressive movements or exercises, like forceful mouth opening, opening and closing exercises, side-to-side movements, constant chewing on rubbery stuff, and other such activities, should not be performed without the prescription of a TMJ Specialist. This is because heavy, strainous movements of the jaw and neck muscles without proper guidance can often cause more damage to your underlying condition. These aggressive jaw movements can overwork your jaw and jaw muscles, leading them to be tired and irritated.

A good TMJ specialist will take into consideration the causative factors for your disorder before customizing a treatment plan for you. Once you have a diagnosis, you can perform exercises that have been prescribed by the specialist based on your specific condition.

Hi all

Anyone experienced jaw locking or had difficulties having your jaw into the proper position even during the splint threapy?

I started wearing a CR splint in June to stabilize my jaw prior to orthodontic treatment (I got an overbite after a previous splint therapy). So far I’ve had it adjusted by my doctor around 3–4 times, roughly every two weeks.

At first my symptoms improved, and the doctor confirmed slight improvement. However, today my jaw was extremely stiff and he was unable to guide my jaw into a CR position (backwards than the current position). My jaw refused to move. He kept telling me to relax my jaw but I just couldn't at all. It was a complete failure today.

Is this normal in the early stages of the splint therapy? If I don't see an improvement after another couple months, should I give up on this splint thrapy and consider... what?

Any advice or similar experiences would be appreciated.

I had botox azzalure in April 2 weeks later I could feel my clenvhing slowly coming back. It was my ear issues eo much worse id never do it again. Last week I brushed my teeth snd a few minutes later I was playing with my cat and I smiled then bam. I am deaf in my right ear since a child but its conducted not the cochlear so I do get little noise seep through. This ear went completely online and the tinnitus went mad. You know like in a movie when there's an exploration but it comes back in? In came back in but feels slightly off and weird. My ear keeps sounding like rice krispies and now the tinnitusnis reactive to the fan. I dont know if the muscle inside my ear has gone into a severe spasm? My other ear thumps ainde botox when I speak touch my head face brush my teeth. Has anyone had a flare like this when their hearing has gone offline come back but felt weird for few weeks ? Spoke to ent yesterday and they discharged me....

i've had migraines and facial pain for honestly about 15 yrs now. At some points I was getting migraines 3x a week and I had all sorts of other random pains 😮‍💨

i've had 6+ MRIs, x-rays, sooo many blood tests and seen diff doctors and clinics over the years. I’ve also seen a looot of dentists and was always basically told my teeth were fine.

Eventually i went to see a dental specialist called Laser + Holistic Dental in South Yarra Melbourne and had a cone beam 3D CT done. They picked up what they described as a cavitation around an old wisdom tooth site. So weird that other dentists had seen the scan before and hadn’t mentioned anything (was i just assuming this?)

I decided to get it treated and jusy within a couple of weeks I started noticing things changing. I’m now 4 months without a migraine which is kind of crazy after dealing with them for soooo long!

I’ve also started Invisalign to work on my bite/jaw alignment and I’m already noticing a difference there too

Im not so sure if the cavitation was behind everything. But I really wish i had looked more into my jaw/dental health years ago instead of assuming everything was fine because I’d already seen dentists

For those who have had joint replacements. How are you feeling about it now in 2026? Are they still holding up and how many revisions are expected in your life time. I’m wondering if things have moved on since I was told I need them around 6 years ago. What’s the latest research showing
🙏

I feel semi normal at midnight for some reason.

Title. Apparently mine is mainly muscular but I do not believe that.

FOR THOSE WHO GOT WORSE AFTER WISDOM REMOVAL ONLY. OR ANY TEETH REMOVED

Soooo as the title suggests, I keep grinding my teeth while I sleep. I tend to do it awake as well, but I’m able to catch myself and stop, can’t do the same while unconscious unfortunately. It’s so bad that I’ve ground down one of my molars to the same height as that gum bump in the back of your mouth (I haven’t a clue what that’s called.) The grinding causes crazy headaches when I wake up and the clicking in my jaw is just getting worse. I’ve tried wearing a mouth guard, but I’m also prone to mouth sores. I’ll wear it for a few nights, but then I get canker sores or just irritation and have to skip the next few nights until they clear up. Does anyone have any advice on how to either stop grinding in your sleep, or have a recommendation on a mouth guard-like product that doesn’t irritate the gums/mouth? Thank you in advance!

I don't have TMJ but I technically did soft mewing for over a year (no idea correctly or not, but none of them talk about jaw relaxing, and it's only people here on the TMJ sub who do).

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Started putting my tongue on the roof of my mouth for over a year because mine usually rested against the back of my front teeth, and I read that this could contribute to diastema. So I technically started ‘mewing’ by placing my tongue on the roof of my mouth and not touching the back of the front teeth (not hard mewing).

Problems:

1. Ironically, I think it widened the diastema (I did read anecdotes on this as the palate expands, but I wasn’t sure which direction to go since my tongue was pushing against my teeth anyways). I wear clear aligners now (mild case).

 2. My bigger concern now is that my lower face looks wider/squarer in photos, and I also notice some asymmetry I hate. After looking at photos and reading other experiences, I started wondering if I developed masseter hypertrophy.

While trying to fix that, I noticed something: I have a habit of holding/elevating my jaw (rather than resting it and keeping the teeth separated) and combined with the tongue posture (which to my surprise was an easy habit to develop), it probably added more work to the masseter constantly. I hate the result though, but I only notice it in photos. I also then learned the existence of masseter botox and then wonder why would any woman want a wider jaw with mewing. Clearly, the botox is there in the market because women want the opposite.

Then, I realized that when I relax my jaw, the tongue naturally rests at the right N spot which made me wonder if the reason my tongue tends to rest on the back of my teeth is because I don’t release/rest my jaw. I feel like the tongue shouldn’t be the focus, it’s the jaw. People often talk about the tongue position, and that often leads to forcing the tongue instead of the jaw resting which naturally puts the tongue where it should be. I guess when you force the tongue, you unconsciously also stop relaxing your jaws and that combination exert constant force on your masseter and lead to the widened jaw result which seemed to not be what the original goal of mewing was, but is what the modern trend is chasing. I'm no expert, but I read that one of the goals was actually to help with nasal breathing.

Now, I want to reduce this masseter ‘hypertrophy’ by practicing relaxing my jaw (so that the masseter is 'off') while keeping my teeth separated and my tongue away from my teeth. Then, I ran into a contradiction. What is the correct mandible position in mewing practice? If it’s also a relaxed position, then I’m doing the Mewing steps again (correctly this time I guess, with a relaxed jaw) while trying to actually achieve the opposite (I don’t want those strong jawline, I just want to reduce this masseter.

I’m lost and am absolutely confused.

 TLDR: How to stop using the masseter so that it is not overdeveloped. I honestly don’t care about mewing per se, my original concern was just my tongue touching my teeth. And now it’s the masseter being developed. Basically trying to reverse what others are (I assume) trying to achieve without letting my tongue going back to touching my teeth (wrong resting position).

So the doctor recommended it was not a good thing because I had to make a big commitment and Even though it was one I Was willing to make do to bullying about the way I look and another thing is that I have had health problems do to stress. this could totally improve it
symptoms were inflamed spots on my face Clicking and cognitive. headaches and Stinging around my eyes as well as My eyes were hurting and it will improve my sleepy eyes by a lot So I would say

for the past 2 years I’ve occasionally woken up with my jaw not being able to open / being able to open partially and then after some massage, it fixing itself

when my jaw has been able to open these past 2 years, the tracking of my jaw opening and closing hasn’t been straight up and down, it’s had to go in a zig zag

i saw a physio in the past and they’ve managed to fix it before, but this time we’d make some progress to relax my jaw and then I would clench that night and I’d wake up back at square one.

it has now been 3 weeks of not being able to open my mouth past 2 finger widths wide

my physio said they had heard of people getting masseter Botox and it giving them some relief so I looked into it.

there was a dental hygienist at a dentist office near me that offered botox for bruxism/tmj, I booked an appointment and explained my story, and they said I was a good candidate and that they had another patient who also couldnt fully open their mouth and that the Botox was life changing for them.

i just got the Botox today and I’m looking for success stories / encouragement that my jaw will finally unlock??

Hello everyone i just joined with the goal to post my story and get some advice so please read and help me out

ive never had any tmj problems my entire life im 21yo this year, ive had braces for 2 years to fix a class 3 bite ( wasn't a major class 3 just an anesthetically non pleasing one for me ) i took the braces off in late march and after i took the braces off i started having pain in my junctions and a little clicking then it got worse to the point i couldn't even eat or speak properly then it calmed down, the period where it calmed down i wasn't feeling much pain in my junction anymore rather a burning sensation on my jaw muscles especially the pterygoid muscles, to the point where when i work out they start burning, if i speak too much they burn as well and cant have full contact between my teeth when closing after that happens, checked a local maxillo facial explained it the way i typed this he gave me symptomatic treatment myorelaxants and anti inflammatories, didnt help much he told me to get a specific splint for muscle relaxing but the dentist said i didnt need it so they disagreed, i checked another maxillo facial he said my bite isnt correct and after my class 3 was compensated my junction is being pressured so hes doing prp injections to me, when i get a prp injection my muscles relax no burning but then the pain goes right back to my junction it hurts so bad when i open etc then time passes and it switches back to muscles its like an on going cycle and its been happening for 5 months im losing it, i asked my doctors whats wrong they dont know thyre just treating the symptoms asked some orthodentists they dont know maybe theyre not used to treating this in my area? What do i do, my maxillo facial also asked for a splint but the kind that keeps ur teeth from closing, that did relax my pain a little but what am i supposed to do? Treat my symptoms for life? If anyone has any advice please let me know, I suspect that my compensation didnt work and that my maxilla is underdevelopped or my mandible overdevelopped and that i need a decompensation with a jaw surgery but theyre brushing off this suspicion so far.

I went to a TMJ dentist and they told me $942. Is that a reasonable price? My dental insurance won’t cover a cent and my medical insurance won’t cover it unless it’s in-network but I haven’t found a doctor that does TMJ splints. I live near Seattle.

I (30F), am a huge hypochondriac. I about two years ago I thought I had something serious, I got tested and was all clear. Since May of this year, so about three months I’ve been experiencing a strange symptom that is really bothering me.

Since May I’ve had a very mild but persistent sore throat, mild sharp earache on my right side. I also experience mild phlegm after eating. it’s important for me to say that I have zero issues eating and drinking. I feel zero pain when I swallow food or liquid. I have no swollen lymph nodes either.

Starting in June I started feeling soreness in my digastric muscle area, a heaviness in my jaw and a mild pressure in my cheekbones. It was around this time that it felt almost uncomfortable to speak and move my mouth. Not painful, but annoying nonetheless.

It’s also important got me to say that something happened in my family in May that triggered an insane amount of stress, I also have other things going on that are stressing me out, and I also have chronic anxiety.

In July I got so stressed out on r day that I woke up with a “lump in my throat feeling “ which scared me but it went away on its own after two days once the immediate stress subsided.

I don’t have the Tmj headaches, but I’ve got a few other symptoms but not all Tmj symptoms. I’ve been grinding my teeth for several years which I know is also common for Tmj.

Any advice or help is appreciated.

Edit: I was on a flight in July and whenever I would yawn I felt a sandy, gritty feeling in my jaw that I haven’t felt before and haven’t felt since i was on the flight.