Does anyone have pain in their jaw or cheek on the TOS side?

my pt says the jaw muscle is all connected to that tos region so it makes sense
he helped me to stop teeth clenching

check for trigger points - they can have referred pain

This link is very easy to use just click to learn more info for areas -
http://www.pressurepointer.com/pain_reference_chart.htm

for example EAR & JAW PAIN-
http://www.pressurepointer.com/trape...ger_points.htm
http://www.pressurepointer.com/SCM_trigger_points.htm

our TrP sticky thread with more info -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...80#post1014280

I used to have this pretty bad. I eventually noticed that I was mildly clenching my jaw dozens of times per day. To break the habit, I used "The Quieting Reflex" by Charles Stroebel. It worked great.

I sometimes also get problems from sleeping on my side. Seems like that compresses my jaw and neck. Often I have to make sure I sleep on my back to avoid this.

Getting my neck stretched out with inversion and traction also seems to reduce my tension there, presumably by taking pressure off nerves coming out of the vertebrae (or rather in between). I got the idea from a study by physical therapists that showed that TOS patients who received neck traction in addition to regular treatment showed more signs of improvement.

HTH

Do you know the name or author of article?

Not off the top of my head, but I did a google search for:

study neck traction thoracic outlet syndrome

The first hit contained the preview text "Ineffective therapies include shoulder shrugs (useful for prevention), weight lifting, and neck traction." which is strange because it contradicts the study I read, as well as another one that said that shoulder shrugs were useful.

However, when I click through to the page which is at http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/96412-treatment , that text is gone. Maybe they corrected it?

Anyway, the 2nd hit was the one that I had read:
http://pt.unlv.edu/ebpt/cats/Orthope...ting%20TOS.pdf

I also suspect that whether or not it helps will depend on what condition your c-spine is in and probably your age as well. An older person is more likely to have spinal compression than a younger person. I'm somewhere in between in my late 30's.

I'm still using both an inversion board and neck traction, averaging every other day. It's been distinctly helpful to me; I'm a fan. ymmv

I also have pain in my left jaw and cheek sometimes up to the temple. It is not every day though but when, then usually during hours and hours. I realized that the pain zones are changing. Neck, shoulder, arm, jaw, migraine. All this on my left not yet operated side.

Please also check the very interesting contribution of JennyHurts of 09-30-2008 at http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=54603. My left side of the face is actually swollen and this is also coming from lymphedema. My PT did some very useful massage today and I got some relief for at least a few hours.

"Your lymphatic system drains right through the thoracic outlet (thus it's called an "outlet"). So, all that junk from your head that should be heading down into your body to escape, gets trapped at the outlet because of your compression. I know ALL about this. This seems to be my latest *big problem.* I keep getting sick, and NOTHING drains, so I stay sick. And then all that junk that sticks around creates just enough of a swelling in the area to not be noticeable visually, but to put enough pressure on the area to flare up the TOS even more, which then causes more blockage at the Outlet. It's really a downward spiral." by JennyHurts. Thanks!