It was only a consultation but it was very informative and a step forward into this condition that has left me without answers for months. For a long while i was going on here and reddit, reading about other people's experiences and comparing them to my own, diagnosing myself when no one knew or could give me answers. Today, I have a few of those questions answered.
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The dentist was still able to examine my mouth/bite despite the fact i can't open wide. He pointed out all the details of my mouth, every space, gap, overlap, etc everything has a name. THere is no signficiant misalignment, my teeth are straight depsite minor overlaps and an overjet. My bite is normal and functional despite not being aesthetic (i have no desire for aesthetic anymore, i simply want to be pain free)
He said invalign (if i wanted it) would not help my pain situation. I told him my symtpoms and he....gave me answers! For the first time in months someone was able to find reason and logic in all this madness. The clicking, not being able to open my mouth, the diffuse pain, the burning, etc. He even demonstrated that he himself has a clicking TMJ only difference is that he can open wide and i can't.
TBH I did already knew what he was going to say, before going in, but i needed someone to explain this to my parents who wouldn't believe me for months. Mainly because they are not familiar with the mechanics of TMJD, so they were thinking of other neurlogical syndromes because i was having, and still am having, neurological sytmpoms.
I'm not happy that I'm diagnosed with TMD, and all that is bundled with it, it still scares me, but i'm relieved that it's not trigeminal neuralgia (which my PCP wanted to diagnose me as) progress is being made even if it's just knowing what's happening.
there are more doctors i need to see, i'm not yet on any specfiic treatment, but steps are being made, my parents finally beleive me, belief is so powerful... and i think now we're heading in the right direction. I'm probably going to still feel like crap for a while, but there's a way out of this, maybe.
I look foward to the day when this experience will be nothing more than a bad dream that i'll hardly believe ever happened to me. Until then...keep going.