I’ve talked a lot about different diseases and conditions in my previous blog posts, from Alzheimer’s disease to thyroid cancer. But I haven’t touched on a condition that affects the person’s jaw and has been affecting me for a little while now. This medical condition is called temporomandibular joint disorder, otherwise known as TMJ.
TMJ is a condition that occurs as a result of problems with the jaw, jaw joint and surrounding facial muscles that control the chewing and moving of the jaw. Some of the symptoms include the jaw clicking every time you yawn or open your mouth wide to eat. According to WebMD, it is affecting some 10 million people in the U.S. One interesting fact is that ninety percent of people who seek a diagnosis or treatment for TMJ are women.
How do you deal with this painful jaw disorder, especially while eating? Here’s how I’ve been handling it to the best of my ability.
Recently, I’ve been seeing a specialist who has been helping me with my condition. She has been advising me to eat more soft foods that don’t put a lot of pressure on my jaw, such as pasta. She also told me to try using an anti-inflammatory medication such as Aleve. I’ve been doing this for a month now and while I still hear those clicking sounds when I open my jaw a little wide, it doesn’t hurt as bad as it used to.
In addition to these treatment methods, there are also mouth guards available to prevent from grinding of your teeth. In severe cases, short-term steroids and muscle relaxants are prescribed. However, surgery is normally the last resort when other treatments have failed.
I also learned I have a strong connection to this jaw condition. It happens to be hereditary in my family. My mother and my grandmother are both dealing with this condition as well. Hopefully, we will all find a way to manage this. For more information on TMJ, visit www.webmd.com.
