Lockjaw!

[Bill Mattocks]

So...getting old sucks.

I was at the dentist recently. An old filling was falling apart. The dentist noticed that the tooth had a hairline crack in it and recommended a crown. I said fine.

So he shoots me up with Novocaine. I've recently had several busted molars removed, same dentist, no issues. In fact, in the past five years, I've had a LOT of dental work done. No issues.

However, this time, the Novocaine didn't seem to take effect all that well. It mostly worked, but when he started grinding on my tooth, I felt it. He said no problem and gave me a second injection. That did it, I was very numb, he took a mold, ground up the old tooth, put on a temp crown.

I went home, the Novocaine wore off, and I found I could not move my jaw. The jaw was locked with minimal movement. There was a lot of pain on the side of my jaw where the tooth was located, right where the Novocaine shot went in.

I called the dentist. He told me to give it a couple days. I did. It didn't get better. He put me on 10 days of prescription muscle relaxers. Didn't help. He referred me to Physical Therapy.

So I'm now doing twice-a-week PT sessions. It seems that the 'disk' that sits between the mandible and the temporal bone on the left side of my face fell off its perch, so to speak. It slipped like a slipped disk in a back, and blocked my mandible from moving when I try to open my mouth, causing the lockjaw and the pain associated with it. This is apparently called TMJ, and I had always thought that was for people who grind their teeth, which I don't do. However, apparently you can get TMJ a variety of ways.

The reason it's not getting better on its own is that the disk is attached to tissue that got stretched out of shape and now doesn't want to pull the disk back to where it belongs. So I'm doing exercises every day to try to get the muscles attached to the tissue back in shape to do their jobs again.

I think I'm improving, but believe me, it's not easy staying fat when you have to smash your lunch up paper thin to fit it in your mouth. I'm very dedicated to it, though.

Anyway...sucks to get old.

 

[Gyakuto]

Oh dear, Bill Mattocks! (This is one of my areas of expertise!) The disc is made of tough fibrocartilage (rather than ‘glassy‘ hyaline cartilage) and is very ware resistant as it takes a lifetime of hard friction! It’s also connected to the superior belly of the lateral pterygoid muscles which pull it forward when you open depress your mandible in the glenoid fossa (jaw socket….are you still with me?) to pad out the potential space between condylar head of the mandible and the glenoid fossa. It slips back into position when you close your mouth through passive recoil of the various elastics tissues.

Sometimes, opening your mouth really wide causes it to snag in the forward position, suffers trauma and swells a little further preventing it from slipping back. It should, after a few days, reduce in inflammation and slip back into it’s normal positio. You’ll be sore but it should be fine. Avoid chewing gum for a month and 3 days and opening your mouth too wide again. It might click a little too but this’ll subside too. If it doesn’t, they’ll have to amputate your jaw 😐😉

Hope this reassures you…it will get better. Any further questions will be answered at my usual rate.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Sometimes, opening your mouth really wide causes it to snag in the forward position, suffers trauma and swells a little further preventing it from slipping back.

I believe that's what happened during my dental procedure.

It should, after a few days, reduce in inflammation and slip back into it’s normal positio. You’ll be sore but it should be fine. Avoid chewing gum for a month and 3 days and opening your mouth too wide again. It might click a little too but this’ll subside too. If it doesn’t, they’ll have to amputate your jaw 😐😉

Unfortunately, we are now on week five since it happened. The rest and the muscle relaxants did not help me. Guess it's curtains for my lower jaw!

Hope this reassures you…it will get better. Any further questions will be answered at my usual rate.

Many thanks! My physical therapist has given me many exercises to do, and tonight is my third visit. He manipulated my lower jaw and managed twice to put things back the way they should be, but both times it didn't last more than an hour or so. Apparently I'm a tough case. He thinks it will be about two months of twice-a-week treatments and then I'll have to use care to avoid it happening again.

And to make matters worse, I still have the temporary crown. I can't get the permanent crown until I can get my mouth open far enough for the dentist to do the work.

 

[Gyakuto]

I had left-sided head pain resulting in an urgent referral to neurology team. They found nothing. After a few days the pain localised to my lower right 7 tooth. Toothache. I was in agony with nothing touching the pain, even illicit drugs that were made available to me! A huge submandibular swelling developed that required antibiotics. I required root canal treatment (£800!😡) which was done at the end of August (bloody awful). After it settled, I was told a crown would be necessary to cover the posterior tooth crack that had originally allowed bacteria into the roots.

The lump persisted and I had ‘sensitivity’ in the treated tooth despite it no longer having a nerve! I went to be assessed for a crown yesterday and the dentists were unsure what was going on so referred me back to the RCT specialist today. X-rays showed him a minor chronic infection at the apex of the roots of the treated tooth -that is, the RCT had ‘failed’.

My options were, 1) wait and reassess in a month 2) Stronger antibiotics (clindamycin 150mg QDS) and wait and reasses 3) Extract the tooth. I’ve gone for option ’2’ but I’m pretty down since I think it’s likely I’ll lose the tooth. 😓

I have to say, I have never had such awful pain and I’ve had two previous kidney stones! Truly awful. I used to show the dental students the huge nerve in the mandible responsible for dental pain (inferior alveolar nerve) and suggest it’s large diameter allows for many action potential interpreted as pain and accounted for awful pain. I underestimated just how bad that was!😭

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I had left-sided head pain resulting in an urgent referral to neurology team. They found nothing. After a few days the pain localised to my lower right 7 tooth. Toothache. I was in agony with nothing touching the pain, even illicit drugs that were made available to me! A huge submandibular swelling developed that required antibiotics. I required root canal treatment (£800!😡) which was done at the end of August (bloody awful). After it settled, I was told a crown would be necessary to cover the posterior tooth crack that had originally allowed bacteria into the roots.

The lump persisted and I had ‘sensitivity’ in the treated tooth despite it no longer having a nerve! I went to be assessed for a crown yesterday and the dentists were unsure what was going on so referred me back to the RCT specialist today. X-rays showed him a minor chronic infection at the apex of the roots of the treated tooth -that is, the RCT had ‘failed’.

My options were, 1) wait and reassess in a month 2) Stronger antibiotics (clindamycin 150mg QDS) and wait and reasses 3) Extract the tooth. I’ve gone for option ’2’ but I’m pretty down since I think it’s likely I’ll lose the tooth. 😓

I have to say, I have never had such awful pain and I’ve had two previous kidney stones! Truly awful. I used to show the dental students the huge nerve in the mandible responsible for dental pain (inferior alveolar nerve) and suggest it’s large diameter allows for many action potential interpreted as pain and accounted for awful pain. I underestimated just how bad that was!😭

I've had five broken molars extracted this year. Honestly, they weren't bothering me when they were broken and the holes where they were aren't a problem either. All because I didn't have my wisdom teeth extracted when I was younger - they grew in sideways and cause my lower molars to shatter over a period of years. Neglect and stupidity on my part. When they first shattered, I dealt with the pain using bourbon and self-discipline rather than modern dentistry. That was the stupid part.

Several years ago, I had the most horrible tooth pain I've ever experienced. It was all-consuming, I could not work, could not function. All I could do was sit on the couch and hold my head in my hands and suck on ice cubes all day and all night. Finally went to see the dentist. It was an infection in my gum. He had to put me on antibiotics for several days before he could even look at the tooth that was causing the trouble. A root canal later, I was right as rain. Now, after five years, my teeth are as good as they're going to get, and I do all the routine checkups and so on as recommended. No more neglect, no more stupidity. This one bad filling was to the be the last work I needed. Ah well.

I'm sorry to hear what you went through. I trust all is well now.

 

[Gyakuto]

I believe that's what happened during my dental procedure.



Unfortunately, we are now on week five since it happened. The rest and the muscle relaxants did not help me. Guess it's curtains for my lower jaw!



Many thanks! My physical therapist has given me many exercises to do, and tonight is my third visit. He manipulated my lower jaw and managed twice to put things back the way they should be, but both times it didn't last more than an hour or so. Apparently I'm a tough case. He thinks it will be about two months of twice-a-week treatments and then I'll have to use care to avoid it happening again.

And to make matters worse, I still have the temporary crown. I can't get the permanent crown until I can get my mouth open far enough for the dentist to do the work.

Good heavens that sounds awful. I promise it will resolve though - have faith (I hate that word!). It’s unlikely the articulation disc is torn but even that will heal after a long time! Do you grind you teeth at night? That can aggravate the temporomandibular joint’s articular disc.

I had slight TMJ pain after the initial drilling out of the tooth. For the RCT, the put some rubber wedges between my teeth to keep my mouth open which helped prevent further issues and I asked for frequent, regular rests.

 

[Gyakuto]

I'm sorry to hear what you went through. I trust all is well now.

I’m in the waiting and seeing phase. The antibiotic need to start working!

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Good heavens that sounds awful. I promise it will resolve though - have faith (I hate that word!). It’s unlikely the articulation disc is torn but even that will heal after a long time! Do you grind you teeth at night? That can aggravate the temporomandibular joint’s articular disc.

I had slight TMJ pain after the initial drilling out of the tooth. For the RCT, the put some rubber wedges between my teeth to keep my mouth open which helped prevent further issues and I asked for frequent, regular rests.

I do not grind my teeth at night or clench my jaw. That's why the TMJ diagnosis surprised me, I thought it only happened to people who did.

Funny thing, when I had my temporary crown installed and then subsequently got the TMJ, the dental assistant used rubber blocks to hold my mouth open - first time I've ever not just held my mouth open instead. I bit down hard on the rubber blocks. I wonder if that's the actual cause.

 

[Gyakuto]

I do not grind my teeth at night or clench my jaw. That's why the TMJ diagnosis surprised me, I thought it only happened to people who did.

Funny thing, when I had my temporary crown installed and then subsequently got the TMJ, the dental assistant used rubber blocks to hold my mouth open - first time I've ever not just held my mouth open instead. I bit down hard on the rubber blocks. I wonder if that's the actual cause.

Hmmm…that could be it!!

 

[jks9199]

void chewing gum for a month and 3 days and opening your mouth too wide again.

OK... got me curious... Why the extra 3 days?

 

[Gyakuto]

OK... got me curious... Why the extra 3 days?

😅😂🤣 Yay….somebody took the bait!😉

 

[Steve]

So...getting old sucks.

I was at the dentist recently. An old filling was falling apart. The dentist noticed that the tooth had a hairline crack in it and recommended a crown. I said fine.

So he shoots me up with Novocaine. I've recently had several busted molars removed, same dentist, no issues. In fact, in the past five years, I've had a LOT of dental work done. No issues.

However, this time, the Novocaine didn't seem to take effect all that well. It mostly worked, but when he started grinding on my tooth, I felt it. He said no problem and gave me a second injection. That did it, I was very numb, he took a mold, ground up the old tooth, put on a temp crown.

I went home, the Novocaine wore off, and I found I could not move my jaw. The jaw was locked with minimal movement. There was a lot of pain on the side of my jaw where the tooth was located, right where the Novocaine shot went in.

I called the dentist. He told me to give it a couple days. I did. It didn't get better. He put me on 10 days of prescription muscle relaxers. Didn't help. He referred me to Physical Therapy.

So I'm now doing twice-a-week PT sessions. It seems that the 'disk' that sits between the mandible and the temporal bone on the left side of my face fell off its perch, so to speak. It slipped like a slipped disk in a back, and blocked my mandible from moving when I try to open my mouth, causing the lockjaw and the pain associated with it. This is apparently called TMJ, and I had always thought that was for people who grind their teeth, which I don't do. However, apparently you can get TMJ a variety of ways.

The reason it's not getting better on its own is that the disk is attached to tissue that got stretched out of shape and now doesn't want to pull the disk back to where it belongs. So I'm doing exercises every day to try to get the muscles attached to the tissue back in shape to do their jobs again.

I think I'm improving, but believe me, it's not easy staying fat when you have to smash your lunch up paper thin to fit it in your mouth. I'm very dedicated to it, though.

Anyway...sucks to get old.

Jesus, Bill. That sucks. Taken it easy and I hope you get some relief fast.