Hi Bryanna,
Thank-you for responding. I really appreciate it. Since last night, I have been having pain in the same general area and I have been drinking liquids only to give my muscles a rest. The pain has just gotten worse. I actually had to take my leftover T3s today because the pain was just so frustrating. I have two additional questions if you could please, please address them any way possible:
Is it possible that if food was stuck in there for a few days, that the site was irritated and can cause pain after for a few days? Or would the pain subside the next day or so? The oral surgeon yesterday (or dentist, I dont even know what he was) cleaned out my sockets, so nothing should be in there since yesterday. Could it be that the hard food like the burger I had actually hit my healing site hard and irritated/damaged it?
If it is my TMJ, I have no clue what to eat. I'm upset because at my 1 week followup, my oral surgeon said that I could start eating normally, but I still kept it on the soft side. The oral surgeon that I met yesterday said that I should stick to "soft foods" like eggs, fish, yogurt, etc for 2 weeks. I have become so paranoid that I have been having only liquids. Should I really start chewing or just stick to drinking? Should I stick to soft diet for 3 weeks instead of 2?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryanna
Hi fathm,
You could be experiencing TMJ problems from chewing too soon after the extractions along with severe irritation in the one extraction site. If food debris becomes impacted in an extraction site it is going to cause pain in that site and possibly referred pain into the muscle area also.
The fact that you already had TMJ abnormalities, with or without pain, makes you at a higher risk for further TMJ issues after dental work. Especially if you over use your jaw muscles too soon afterwards. Which it sounds like you did that.
The TMJ musculature can be asymptomatic until the muscle spasms. If it wasn't in spasm prior to the extractions or until you chewed food, then it would make sense for the delayed musculature pain as it hit due to a spasm. Backing off from chewing and opening your mouth wide may be just enough to relax the muscle. But that is not something you can rush. It could takes weeks or more to truly relax because it is a muscle that is used for talking and opening the mouth to drink, eat soft foods, brush teeth, etc.
It is important that the extraction site be evaluated properly to make sure there is not a food impaction. If the oral surgeon did not look thoroughly at the extraction sites... then go back and see him or someone else again.
Bryanna
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