Editor’s Note: John Lucas, the creator of The Face Caddy, has been such an incredible supporter of all of us who struggle with jaw pain. In this blog post, he shares his story of pain and its impact on his life. TMJ Disorder can be many… Read More »The Pain In (and Out) of Your Body
Editor’s Note: John Lucas, the creator of The Face Caddy, has been such an incredible supporter of all of us who struggle with jaw pain. In this blog post, he shares the story of how Face Caddy was invented. Welcome to the first Jaw Bone… Read More »The Making of Face Caddy
We received this email from a dentist and wanted to share his journey with you. The tips he offers come from the perspective of not only a dentist, but also a patient. Hi Stacy, Before you think, oh, no just someone looking to advertise… Read More »The View From the Other Side of the Chair……A Dentists Journey With TMJ Disorder
Thank you Pete for allowing us to share your forum post. It’s now almost 2 years to the day that I had my left arthroplasty with discectomy, debridement of joint surfaces and dermis-fat graft. Before I go on, I wonder what your procedure actually is?… Read More »TMJ Arthroplasty Success Story
In the last post, I shared with you my journey up until about a year ago. If you haven’t read it, click here to catch up. Once I realized that I was the only one that was going to make any changes in my own… Read More »The Road to Feeling 85% Better – Part 2 – One Change Causes a Huge Shift
Making the decision to have TMJ total joint replacements implanted at age 24 was not easy. Advice came from all directions and all viewpoints; I should do it because it would increase my quality of life…I should not do it because it was a gamble… Read More »My Road to Feeling 85% Better After a Diagnosis of Chronic Intractable Pain – Part One
Stacy: Hi Kristen, why don’t you start off by telling us a little about yourself Kristen: I’m 30yrs old, I’ve been married for 11yrs and we have 2 amazing children. Right now my hobbies are gardening, reading, cooking with my husband and traveling. Right now… Read More »Interview With Kristen
This is an interview conducted on the phone by Stacy, the Founder of TMJ Hope, with Lorelei, a TMJ Hope community member that has had several TMJ surgeries. It’s an amazing read, and has some incredible tips and insights that could really help you if… Read More »An Interview with Lorelei, a Surgical Patient: TMJ Arthrocentesis, Arthroscopy, & Arthroplasty
With 10+ years behind me, I thought I’d post some thoughts on what it has been like, and most importantly, what I’ve learned, in the hopes that you could skip ahead a few years by applying these tips to your life. I’ve been through pretty… Read More »5 Life Lessons I’ve Learned From Thousands of TMJ Disorder Patients
This is part two of Jessica’s TMJ story. A couple days ago, we left off with Jessica telling us about her first arthroscopy. In this interview, we pick up with Jessica telling us about her most recent TMJ surgery. (Catch up on the first interview.)
Here’s the rest of our chat:
Stacy: Prior to your recent arthroscopy did you do anything
different?
Jessica: I changed my diet to soft foods, took muscle relaxers and
pain medication. My dentist gave me some physical therapy
exercises, but they made the pain worse. I have become a
big proponent of MRI’s, but this time around my MRI came
back normal. I was confused because I had the same
symptoms as before. I gave the report to my doctor and
found out that the MRI was read wrong. She said that a lot of
radiologists don’t have the experience, or the knowledge they
need to read a TMJ MRI, and as a result they get it wrong.
Stacy: Your current surgeon gave you the option of having
arthrocentesis the second time around, why did you choose
arthroscopy instead?
Jessica: I questioned why if I had a more invasive procedure the first
time would a more conservative procedure work this time?
Again I had zero quality of life. We talked about both options
and agreed to do arthroscopy again. I had my second one
in June of this year.Read More »Jessica's Arthroscopy Story, Part Two – Patients Who Give Us Hope!