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.
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.