Hi Melody L.

I thought I read in one of your posts here that you stated your tooth was ok to chew on but was sensitive to hot temperature?? When a nerve is dying in a tooth, one of the initial symptoms is sensitivity to hot temperature. This can occur at the early onset of the nerve dying which may or may not show up as pathology on a routine dental radiograph. Another symptom of an inflammed lower tooth is pain under the jawline, could be in the area of the glands. The soreness or pain will eventually radiate or become referred pain to the musculature area of the face including the TMJ area.

When a tooth is inflammed, the ligament holding it in the jawbone is also inflammed which causes a lower tooth to elevate up slightly. Just enough to cause the person to (unbeknowingly) clench down on the tooth just like you would press down on a sore spot on your arm or hand for example. This clenching can trigger spasms in the muscular/ligament area on both sides of the head near or around the TMJ from both inside the mouth and outside of head.

I have known many thousands of cases like this.... not saying this is your particular problem ....... but the tooth may be having some issues that are not yet being seen on the radiographs.

Bryanna

Hi.

I know exactly what you are talking about because I read that years ago (about being sensitive to heat).

But I also have TMJ (clicking popping), and the feeling of an ice-pick being driven in my ear (haven't had that in a while) but I'll NEVER forget that. I think I've experienced that 3 or 4 times in about 15 years.

I have my mouth open for something or other, I close my mouth, my joint on the right side of my face is sore and at the same time I close my mouth I get that HORRIBLE ice-pick being driven in my ear. It feels wet.

Haven't had this happen in a LONG time.

My primary care doc told me "your dentist will take an x-ray of your TMJ" .

I know he's taking x-rays of my mouth after I get my cleaning. I didn't know they take x-rays of the TMJ.

Today (and I'm not on anything right now), I feel much better. It's like a cloud has been lifted off of my head.

It's also 15 degrees cooler than it was yesterday and the previous days.

We had a bad heat wave.

I wish I was not a dental phobic. That's the one thing in my life I wish I could change.

Fear rules me. Fear of the dentist.

The fear and anticipation is worse than the visit.

Phobias are horrible.

I could go for blood tests, I could go for injections on my body. In fact a long time ago I had a bad left shoulder. The doctor told me "melody I'm giving you a cortisone shot and you'll be able to move your shoulder and left arm much better, but just hold still, I'll be careful not to hurt you".

Alan was with me.

I said to my doctor "just shoot me, I'm okay" He was holding this 8 inch needle in his hand and was about to inject me (into wherever they inject you in the shoulder). I laughed when I saw the needle.

The doctor looked at me and said "How the hell can you laugh, people go crazy when they see this needle".

I said "you don't understand, I'm a dental phobic, I don't care if you go anyplace else".

He injected me, I didn't move, I didn't care, I was just fine.

He said: "I have NEVER seen anyone take an injection like you".

I said "Now if I could only go to the dentist and act like this".

It's a real shame that at my age, I still have this phobia.

And I have a GOOD phobia dentist.

Want to hear something really strange?

When I had my gallbladder surgery, (the first one), I had continued to bleed internally. As they began to roll me back into the operating room 2 days after the first surgery, I was left alone for 5 minutes right outside of the operating room.

Want to know what I said out loud: "well, Melody, at least they are not going into your mouth".

Can you imagine??

Melody

Went to my phobia dentist yesterday.

You would have thought I was going to the Electric Chair.

I sit down, they do all the x-rays and she comes back with "well, your tooth is fine, you have a deep filling, but it's all intact and everything looks fine, but the doctor will examine you after your cleaning".

I really don't like dental cleanings. I don't like anyone poking inside my mouth. But it is what it is and the more cleanings you have, the easier it is each time you go. The less tartar they have to scrape.

She puts this numbing gel on all the teeth (And I asked all my friends and even Alan and they never do this with them).

Not that she was killing me but when she probed, I yelled and I said "did you hit a nerve?" and she said; "I'm not near any of your nerves" and I said "so why does it hurt?" and she said 'well, I have to get into the gum line and you have tarter in the back where your brush didn't reach. It was more my nerves than anything else.

So she works on me for about 45 minutes. She did such a job, there is nothing left in my mouth. She got everything out. She scraped (but she is very gentle), but thorough. She dug around that back tooth and I was just fine. She said "believe me, if it was this tooth, you would have jumped out of the chair". My tooth has been just fine (as well as my head and jar, for the last week)

So my lovely phobia dentist walks in and says hi and examines me and says "your teeth are perfectly fine, no cavities, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING, YOUR X-RAYS ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE LAST TIME, YOU TAKE VERY GOOD CARE OF YOUR TEETH EXCEPT YOU DIDN'T COME IN FOR REGULAR CLEANINGS"

I said 'what about the back tooth", and I told him of my experience about one month ago (it's all cleared up for 7 days now, no more headaches, no more pain in the back tooth), And he examined my jaw and the TMJ and he felt the clicking when I opened and closed my mouth. and he said 'yeah, you had a bad TMJ flare-up, did you have any stressors?.

I told him about my son (can't really go into it, but take it from me, he has caused us a great deal of stress). Well the doctor listened and said "Oh my god, you poor thing, that DEFINITELY would cause a flare-up and inflammation and spasming. You've been spasming in your TMJ which affects the nerves, blah blah. See, I knew this, but I had to have HIM TELL IT TO ME. And I needed a cleaning. A really good cleaning.

He then said 'use anti-inflammatories when you feel a stressor coming on. Try and keep away from stress. (yeah, right,lol)

He also asked me what kind of tooth brush I used. I said "well, I did have the Oral B Electric Professional one by Braun but it broke so now I'm using the $20 electric one.

He said "No, not if you want your teeth to get rid of all the build-up and tartar".

He said "the ONLY toothbrush I recommend is the Oral B Professional, or the Smart Series 4000 or any of the GOOD Oral B electric ones. They cost from $99 to $200.

He said "I tell ALL my patients that if they want easier cleanings every time they come, that they HAVE to use the Oral B (good ones, not the cheap ones).

He also took out his sample one and compared it to the cheap ones. He showed me how different they work and how thorough the better one is for getting your teeth clean.

I will do anything not to have her dig so deep next time.

So I'm online seeing how much they cost.

That's my next purchase.

And (you'll find this interesting), last night (after I finished up with the dentist and walked around NYC for 5 hours), I went to the Neuropathy Support group meeting. I spoke to Steve who runs the meeting and I asked him "how are you with dental cleanings?" He said: "There isn't a dentist alive who will touch me with a deep root cleaning" and I said "why not"? and he said "Because when you have Neuropathy, you have damaged nerves and they are afraid of damaging them even more, remember Dolores Hart (who became Mother Hart), well she was an actress who later on in life got Neuropathy from a Root Canal. (Never knew this could happen). So Steve can only get surface cleanings and he gets a prescription of Tetracycline and opens up the pill and rubs the powder into his gums (I gather he does this every so often) to prevent infections.

And when she was cleaning my teeth, I asked the hygienist "are you giving me a deep root cleaning?" and she said: "Oh no, you would have to have the WAND for that (My phobia dentist does not use injections, he uses the WAND), IT'S GREAT!!!

I then asked her "well, why can't you WAND my whole mouth for this cleaning?" She said "do you know how much anaesthetic that would be?" I gather they only do sections at a time for a deep root cleaning. I had that done many years ago and I had to do this in 3 or 4 visits. And that was with injections. NEVER AGAIN.

to keep my gums in tip top shape I use a products that I get from GNC. It's called Silver Biotics. I just take a dropper full and place on my gums, and thankfully I've been doing just fine.

My doctor says "my teeth and gums are just fine'. People used SILVER way back before they used Antibiotics so it must have some kind of good effect on the teeth and gums.


So now you know about my experience with my TMJ. It's a come and go kind of experience, and I hope I never have it that bad ever again.

Melody