My story began December 2011. At first I just had clicking and popping in my jaw and then turned into an achy pain. Then in January my jaw locked and i couldn't open it more than a few centimeters.
Step 1- January 2012
I went to my regular dentist and he told me it could be dislocated and to see an oral surgeon. I then went to St. Louis to an oral surgeon, Dr. Kramer. He prescribed muscle relaxers for at night and a anti-inflammatory to get my jaw to relax and hopefully go back into place. Along with the medicines he told me to have a soft diet for a month. This method eventually allowed my mouth to open more but i still had a lot of pain in my jaw and awful headaches all the time along with limited range of motion and pain when I ate, talked, and smiled.
Step 2- February 2012
Then he suggested that I wear a splint at night to help relax my muscles. We were more than willing to try this but the splint was very expensive and we battled insurance companies for nearly 5 months to try and get them to cover it.
-June 19
They finally gave the okay to get the splint and he made it and I gave it a go. This splint made no improvements and by the way insurance still a year later hasn't paid for my lovely splint that didn't work.
Step 3- August 2012
Dr. Kramer finally kind of put his hands up and didn't know what to do anymore. I started therapy and was hopeful to get some relief. Unfortunately, after 4 or 5 sessions my headaches and jaw pain remained the same but the therapy created neck and back pain. Before therapy my back and neck were tight and knotted but I had no pain. After therapy i had almost unbearable neck pain that radiated all the way down my back. We were at a loss for some time on what to do. At this point I was also getting bad heartburn and stomach aches constantly from being on pain medicines for a year.
Step 4- August 23, 2012
I started a different kind of therapy called myofascial therapy. I wasn't very willing to begin this because it was in St. Louis which meant driving an hour away after school when I already had dance or activities almost everyday that I was committed to. However I was pretty desperate to be pain free so I gave it a try. I really liked my therapist she was kind and gentle and I was hopeful this wouldn't be like my other therapy experience and that it would help me heal! At first I thought it was a little weird because it is very different than normal therapy but i was getting a little relief and relaxation while i was there so that was good. But after 10 or 12 appointments i wasn't having improvements in my pain levels so we stopped the therapy.
Our next step was truly an act of God because we were clueless of what to do. My mom was a Physical Therapist Assistant before she had her 5 girls and she knew a therapist who specialized in TMJ; unfortunately she now lived 2 hours away. We went to visit her and see what she suggested. After our visit she did some looking around to find a doctor to help me. Her sister-in-law was a dentist who knew some one who knew a doctor who specialized in TMJ. His name was Dr. Marincel and we went to him to see if he could give us any answers.
-September 4
Our first visit was very long and painful. He was very thorough and did a lot of testing to figure out what was going. I had to open my mouth quite a bit and be poked and prodded which increased my pain and by the end I was ready to leave. He told us that the most likely solution was to have surgery in Florida which at the time I didn't even know was an option. This really upset me and i broke down in tears. It was my senior year and I in no way wanted to leave for almost a month for surgery. Through the rest of the exam I kept breaking down in tears, I think I finally just broke and couldn't take it anymore, I just wanted to be normal and enjoy my last year of high school. Honestly I wasn't even afraid about the surgery or the pain just exhausted. Dr. Marincel ordered CT scans and MRI's to clarify if I needed surgery.
-September 19
This was our final visit with Dr. Marincel. He talked to us for over an hour and educated us about my problem through a power point of my scans. He showed us that the discs on both sides of my jaw were dislocated and my condyle bones were very undeveloped. He told us that the discs were not going to to go back into place without surgery and my bones wouldn't grow unless they had the nutrients of the discs on top of them. Ultimately he told us that I didn't have to go through with the surgery but my problem would continue to get worse as I got older. I still didn't like the idea but I didn't really have any other choice, so we started contacting Dr. Piper for my initial consult and surgery.
This was our final visit with Dr. Marincel. He talked to us for over an hour and educated us about my problem through a power point of my scans. He showed us that the discs on both sides of my jaw were dislocated and my condyle bones were very undeveloped. He told us that the discs were not going to to go back into place without surgery and my bones wouldn't grow unless they had the nutrients of the discs on top of them. Ultimately he told us that I didn't have to go through with the surgery but my problem would continue to get worse as I got older. I still didn't like the idea but I didn't really have any other choice, so we started contacting Dr. Piper for my initial consult and surgery.
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