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ear pain and intermittent throat pain
Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) | Last Active: Oct 25 9:33am | Replies (20)Comment receiving replies
@amandabanana80- Good morning and welcome to Mayo Connect. I had a very bad case of TMJ in both jaws. I even went to a special PT lady for it. It takes much longer than a week for those exercises to help and work. They are like beginning weight training and expecting to see huge muscles the next day. The pain caused by TMJ is due to inflammation and that has to abate too. And it takes time to heal! I think that I am way too quick in judging if a medicine will work if I don't get instant relief. TMJ doesn't happen overnight and it takes a while for everything to heal. Some people keep these exercises up for years. Have you considered getting a night guard?
Replies to "@amandabanana80- Good morning and welcome to Mayo Connect. I had a very bad case of TMJ..."
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My experience of TMJ pain has been sporadic over the years. I have found the cause to be overuse in the form of clenching the jaw both during sleep, but also when concentrating on doing something during the day.
Awareness is the way to stop this unconscious habit by catching yourself doing it and focussing on keeping a loose jaw. Practice makes perfect. Be patient.
At night before sleep I focus my awareness on keeping the jaw loose with a homemade self-hypnosis talk. It works.
I bristle when people mention using a mouth guard. All the guard does is to protect the teeth. It does not stop clenching of the jaw. (Why don't people see this?)