My thanks go to moondaughter for drawing our attention to a possible connection between peduncle compression and TMJ.

The Wiki defines
"Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD or TMD), or TMJ syndrome, is an umbrella term covering acute or chronic inflammation of the temporomandibular joint, which connects the mandible to the skull."

See a video "TMJ Treatment Helping with Parkinson's Symptoms (Posture) Dr. Demerjian Burbank, California"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_UJvVvnGXo

Does anyone have any experience of this?

John

Dear John,

Also, I wonder about the amygdala and facial musculature connection.

Even though I don't have headaches, nor teeth grinding I am going to invest in an orthotic appliance. My right shoulder has been lower then my left even when I was a child and i have some right ear congestion so am hoping this treatment can help. Trigeminal neuralgia will drop one to his knees fast so it seems wise to adhere to the ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure approach.

I figure at the least it will help oxygenate me at night but was hesitant because of the cost and also didn't want to talk with a lisp (may occur depending how thick the "appliance" is) but decided to at least use this thing at night and see how it goes during the day. It helps just to become consciously aware of relaxing your jaw to help you breathe better.

seeing the dentist next week!
hopefully it will help me smile with my liver.....
md

heres another link http://www.youtube.com/user/ppmmouthguard

and another from a fellow pder: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/parkins...cle-turnaround

See also The Overlooked Peduncle thread.

Among other things with acronyms TMJ is something that I was diagnosed with over several years prior to Pd. None of them were alleviated by anti inflammatories or painkillers. They were all alleviated by Sinemet. Immediately preceding diagnosis I had cluster migraines for around 5 months. They too disappeared. I have had perhaps 5 migraines in the 8 years since.

Today I am aware that I grind my teeth, but have no issues from it. When very undermedicated I am aware of facial discomfort, with rigidity, sometimes painful. But then so is the rest of me.....

That is interesting Lindy !! IMHO your TMJ symptoms are not separate from the pd sx . In homeopathy we treat the whole person consideriing all sx.

what if we are all a bunch of symphonic walking magnets? that we attract and repel symptoms, friends, life experience within like resonant frequency bands (birds of a feather...). we would no longer view ourselves from a linear perspective.

for example....we could search for patterns that flow through our symptoms rather than the sx themselves.........constipation,, repressed feelings, fear of abandonment--might all be present together or another example would be: we don't just break our leg because we fall- we fall because we were careless because we were upset becauuse mercury was in retrodgrade and we have a middle ear infection because we had a traumatic memory of hearing bombs go off while we were born

so then a question becomes...could food cause a mechanical adjustment in the spine? could releasing the trauma that causes a time warp in our body trigger amino acids that then trigger different hormonal receptors? could sinemet treat TMJ?

i say yes!!

md

i had the whole thing - a slipped disc in my jaw, excruciating pain, and a mouthpiece that had to be paid out of pocket because the jaw is considered a dental problem. i had it during a time of great stress. the doctor gave me a 10mg valium and the tech told me to keep my mouth closed during the MRI. well 10 mg put me right to sleep with my mouth wide open. the tech wasn't happy he had to pull me out 3 or 4 times and once i was even snoring.

anyway i do have alot of trouble with my cervical spin, had neck surgery for another disc replacement. now i'm waiting for two partials which were lost for awhile in the ordering so 2 more weeks and i will have a full mouth of healthy teeth. i'm really hoping it keeps my mouth open and not succumb to the inevitable cave in from meds. i am missing quite a few back teeth so i hope to stop biting my lip and bursting into frustrating tears at dinner.

if this remains a problem i will check into botox but getting it covered is another thing.

after while my tmj went away. the mouth piece wouldn't fit now anyway i still had more teeth then. so i hope its gone for good.

md, I absolutely agree that the symptoms that I was displaying, the ones with all the acronyms(!), were in retrospect part of the pd, and in particular the rigidity that comes with it.

The sad fact of modern medicine is that often we get seen by 'specialists' who only see our health from the perspective of their particular specialism, therefore a rheumatologist will find conditions that fall into his/her remit, and the urologist will find those that relate to that discipline, etc. As Pd symptoms fall into many of these brackets a lot of us spend quite a while moving towards neurology without quite getting there, especially if we do not have tremor, or are young. I had massive amounts of tests done for every kind of arthritic condition under the sun - purely because my gp at that time thought my rigidity was a joint problem.......

On the other hand I believe that rigidity is a slightly overlooked problem in Pd, all of my neuros have concentrated more on slowness, cognitive affects, and looking for a visible tremor that I do not have. Rigidity is most definitely affected by and exacerbates postural problems, a two way street. Prior to medication I was very hunched and had a strong inward pull across the front of my chest, enough to limit comfortable breathing. These days I know that I am very off when this kind of rigidity returns, accompanied by face ache. This is the classic PD posture.......

Hi Paula,
Would you please explain about "inevitable cave in from meds"? Haven't seen much on dental issues from PD, just dry mouth. Thank you, Lin
(I have TMJ also)

Hi lin,

i guess it's dyskinesia but my lips gradually turn in and my mouth looks like a (. OFten the lower lip goes in under my upper. i have no lips almost then. most unbecoming i hate it. sinemet doesn't help it and i wonder if its a tardive dyskinesia.

paula

just went to my dr. to check sore right jaw that spread down the neck.
went to my dentist first who said no teeth problem but might be clenching problem, said get a mouth guard. symptoms lessened with sinemet.

dr. said take ibuprofen, try a mouth guard. nothing serious. and it's gone away!

i was worried possibly something more serious, alway something new with pd.

Here's an interesting paper by a dentist describing anatomical mechanisms by which a number of Parkinson-like symptoms could in fact be caused by jaw problems.

"Parkinson’s Disease: are some cases in fact misdiagnosed Cranio-Mandibular Dysfunction?"
Dwight Jennings DDS, MICCMO
Alameda, California
http://web.me.com/thriiive/Summit_9/...ONTMJpub-1.pdf

(Neither a publication, nor a date are given. Judging by the references I'd estimate that it was written in 2008.)

For instance, Jennnings writes:

"Tremor:
Multiple case histories have shown an unclear connection between bite and tremors. The suspected mechanism is thought to be trigeminal input into the reticular formation."

"Masked Face:
The trigeminal nerve is known to have the ability to modulate muscles of facial expression. ... This I have seen demonstrated numerous times clinically when chronic Bell’s palsy symptoms resolve with jaw orthopedic therapy."

John