Hi Their,
BUT.

Here is a link that relates them together, BUT WHY????

By the grace of God, my pain levels are a one today.

Much Love, Roz

http://www.tmj-pain.com/tmd-related.htm

Roz,
How WONDERFUL!!!! I am so glad you are having a good day!!! I hope this decreased pain trend continues for you!!! Best wishes!!! Enjoy your day!!!!!

roz happy that your pain is low today. mom rsd then tmj but mom recently found out that she also has it so maybe genetic who knows. my i also have rsd in my face. i had to have my wisdon teeth out in 00 and thought it was just pain from that when they used to clamp to open my mouth it dislocated. then after words he asked if it clicks or any pain and i said yes
he looked you can feel it move side to side

i have had lock aw so many times i couldnt tell ya . but really right now the steriod shots have been helping and i take zanaflex for my rsd and it helps with the rsd but the pain is out of portion it think that what tmj is i think my mom says she doesnt have the same kind of pain sometimes she says its bad but takes advil and it helps but like you said sometimes the zanaflex makes me not hear right also i like you i think that its a bp thing

Angel,
I am so sorry for your difficult road. The constant pain is so exhausting. I've had TMJD for 4 years, RSD for 2 months. Both are debilitating. I, too, take Zanaflex at night. It was when I tried taking it during the day as well that my BP would drop and make me feel so exhausted. The muscle spasms are getting bad in my legs, so they may need to try me on something else. Skelaxin gives me terrible headaches. I'm going to ask about the Baclofen.

Yes, the Advil usually takes care of most of the pain with the TMJD. The few times I've been on steroids from my back have been the least pain I've been in for years, as well.

I'm so sorry you have RSD in your face. Mine is in my feet and the pain is in my legs as well, but I can manage that. I can't imagine how horrible it must be to have it in your face as well. I do think it may be spreading to my hands now, but that hasn't been confirmed. I am noticing redness on my palms, aching and prickly sensations. I never would have thought anything about it if I didn't already have RSD in my feet and knew what it feels like.

I guess we all just deal with what we have to and do the best we can. It is amazing what the human body can tolerate when it has to. I hope you are having a good day!! Talk later!!

Hi thanks. My pain started and is still the worst in the inner ankle/foot/calf. Then over a year ago I developed severe eye pain/bleph/dry eye/floaters. I went to about 40 eye apts and 7 specialists for this eye condition alone and it is only worse with treatments. I then developed severe face pain on that side that runs to the ear again went to more specialists with no answers and or relief. I have had many diagnostic mri,emg,xrays I could go on for the leg and rsd and I have peripheral neuropathy. I have had little success with treatment though I am hunting for a new pain doc but I have seen what are supposed to be top rsd pain docs to be let down. I wish I had more answers for you and others. I wish I could find a doctor who would make more connections to all the symptoms but they don't. I am just hoping with proper pain control that it will help all the areas I have problems with. Hang in there and I too am sorry for your and everyones pain and conditions.

mom
i have been on the zanaflex for years i have taken all the other muscle relaxer and they only worked for awhile or i was allergic. i have horrible problems keepin my bp up any ways. but the zana flex works the best i take about 24 mgs a day some times less it depends on the day lol but im suppsed to take 3 4mg tabs 3xs daily some times its too much and it does make me sleeply thats the other reason i take it is to help with the lunesta at night . about the rsd being in the face its not as bad as you would think i have alot more of the color change or probls with eyes jaw and then the pain and numbness. my legs and arms and back are the worse .

back to the jaw yea no one has linked the two together one oral surgeon told me it was caused my the car accident that caused my rsd since i didn have facial trama in the accident .daniella i am so sorry that you have had trouble with docs i have seen about 100 in the last 11 yrs and only about 4 have treated me correctly. i saw that you lived in MN dont go to mayo been there and they told me to stop faking and get out. are close to the IL side of MN

-carrie

I don't necessarily think the conditions are related, I actually believe that somehow I have RSD in the TMJ joint, that preceded my RSD in my foot by 4 years (at least). I have had various MRI's, CT scans, Tomogram......all of which showed bony degeneration but nothing wrong with the joint itself otherwise. RSD causes bone degeneration once advanced. Have either of you had diagnostic tests that showed the same??
TMJD is SO difficult to treat. Pain is SO subjective. AND, to make it worse, most affected by it are women in our age group with a history of anxiety and/or depression so the docs toss it ALL off as that. Uggghhhh.....I am so sorry for your treatment by these docs. I have experienced some of the same. I had one doc tell me that my problem was that I "looked too good" (I had on makeup and was dressed nicely, as I always try to do) and they didn't believe something was actually wrong with me. He went on to call me a "nut" to which he got a VERY nasty note from me (he actually called me at home and apologized and talked to me for 20 minutes).
Anyway, my TMJ pain has gone through the roof since my diagnosis with RSD. I am wondering if it is not a flare in both places??? I may be WAY off track but I am curious about OTHER'S experiences. Thanks for taking the time to write and share your stories!!

Hi again. Actually I used to well may still in MI and I would commute to Cleveland Clinic but I also saw doctors at Ucla and areas in Ca and in MI. Now since the winter is so horrible on my pain level I am in FL and we will see what spring brings because humidity is a huge issue like right now I am in a horrible pain state.
Anyhow back to the original topic, I know for myself too the pain is the worst like no other in the leg well both now. I do know that since I have rsd I am so sensitive in other areas where it causes a lot of pain any extra strain or poking. Some sort of hypersensitive so I wonder and I could be way wrong but if your tmj has become worsened because your body in general is more sensitive. I do feel that my eyes/ear started as one condition but because it didn't get treated it too turned rsd. Now I have had mixed feelings from docs about my eyes and ear being rsd though my legs are for sure. Again like I said I hope that with proper treatment for my legs that it will help the overall body and then I will for sure think it is connected. Hugs and better wishes

I have hearing problems BIG time! It all started in the late 80's (before RSD) with this loud roaring in my left ear. This roar would go for a couple of days, then I would notice that I was losing my balance, and then it would morph into a full blown spin cycle (vertigo) that might last several days.

I finally saw a doctor about it in the mid 90's, and was told it is meniere's disease. There is no cure, and now it has left me almost completely deaf in the left ear, with loud ringing that is almost constant. The good thing out of the whole ordeal is that the vertigo has subsided almost to never happening.

I noticed that loud things such as concerts, shooting, cars, or even having the window down in the car with the wind blowing in my ear will set off a vertigo attack. I know when it is coming on though because the roar always comes first. So I have ample time to get things done before the spin cycle sets in.

I have wondered if it predisposed me to RSD....makes ya wonder lol.

In my case because my TMJ is pre-existing to my rsd by many years so it has been completely dismissed as having any link to RSD or tinnitus. That being said since all of these conditions are all on the left side of my body it just makes sense to me they are each related. I don't believe that I have RSD in my ear or jaw area, but I do know for fact that since my rsd started my TMJ conditions were exasperated substantially. My tinnitus is a direct result of a reaction to a drug taken for my rsd. On days when I am flared up my rsd signals bounce like a ping pong from joint to joint on the entire left side of my body. It is days like that that I have to take an oxycontin to get my rsd back under control. Thankful those days are very rare now.

It is interesting that there seems to be a few of us here that suffer from RSD, TMJD and Tinnitus problems. Hmmmm.

I read an interesting theory in the "Prescription for Nutritional Healing" reference book about tinnitus. "It is now thought that the noise originates in the brain, and not in the ear, as was previously believed. If the ear is damaged by exposure to loud noises or certain medications (including aspirin), the brain may try to compensate and end up producing electrical signals that a person hears as ringing noise in the ears."

This statement brought me to recall an article I had read sometime back about the chronic pain and the brain called "My Brain, My Pain" in the New York Times and got me to wondering about the connection of all of this with the brain. "Many diseases of the central nervous system involve inappropriate levels of activation in particular brain regions that change the way they operate (negative neuroplasticity). Some regions experience atrophy, while other regions become hyperactive. (For example, epilepsy involves hyperactivity of cells; stroke, Parkinson's and other diseases involve the atrophy of nerve cells.) With chronic pain, it is believed that additional nerve cells, recruited for transmitting pain, create more pain pathways in the nervous system, while nerve cells that normally inhibit or slow the signaling, decrease or change function."

Have a look at the whole article it is quite a fascinating read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/magazine/14pain.html

Much love and peace.

MsL