@thuts6818 You indicate that you cannot afford to go to a TMJ specialist. Would it be possible to have this paid for by Medicaid or something like that?
Another option is going to a School of Dentistry. I live in southern NH and I know of people who have gone to Boston to one of the Schools of Dentistry (Tufts, probably Harvard too) to get major work done very reasonably. Boston is about 55 miles away from here, it takes a couple of hours to get there during the day generally due to traffic, but obviously it is worth it if it makes having that work done possible.
The other very odd option I have heard of is going to Mexico! Dental work there is much less expensive than taking the flights to a border town, walking across the border, and staying a couple of nights. I do not know of anyone personally who has done this but my sister knew someone who did and who said the dental work was good. Frankly, I cannot imagine doing this myself, but I know it is done.

@fourof5zs Your pain sounds very similar to what I used to experience. I was often able to manipulate my jaw to get things back in alignment, but sometimes I just had to be patient and wait.
That really is terrible that they would put you and a dental intern through an embarrassing moment as they did. Among other things, it risks spreading infection, so it's particularly bad. We are more conscious of germs now, but there has been a huge consciousness about them every since AIDS came on the scene. I guess if your experience was prior to this perhaps there it was less so.
JK