Hello, I'm Ignacio, just turned 26 yesterday, and I have been to this site a couple of times the last couple of weeks so I figured I should sign up and share my story.
First, some backstory, I've gone to the same dentist basically since I was a kid, and the last time I saw him was about 2 years ago and told him I felt clicking and popping mostly in the left side of my jaw, he did some weird exercises on my jaw to "put it in its place" or something like that and he told me to use a night guard but it was this hard one for both the upper and lower teeth, so I used that for a while and I eventually stopped using it, the clicking was still there but it never really caused pain so I ignored it...
So, about 2-3 months ago, I started getting bad headaches and vertigo every day, the first doctor told me my ears were a little irritated, so he gave me some pills and sent me on our way, a few days passed and I wasn't feeling any better.
The second doctor told me I had something called Benign Positional Vertigo (I think) and he gave me some exercises to perform and some pills for the headaches, so a few weeks passed and the headaches came and went and the vertigo was just an issue when I lay in bed or sit up too fast and I thought "it will pass"
But then... I wake up in the middle of the night with a ringing in my left ear and thought it would go away but it never did...
Cut to me going to an ENT, he checks my ears and tells me they look excellent, and then he presses on both sides of my jaw tells me to open wide and not only did it hurt but it triggered vertigo when I did that, and sure enough he told me I had TMJ disorder, he gave me a tablet called Qual and then told me to go to an orthodontist.
So, I go and the first thing he tells me is that my teeth are VERY worn out from clenching at night (bruxism) and he said they are worst than a 60-year-old patient he saw, and that was the extent of my first visit, in my second visit, he was there with the maxillofacial surgeon and he checked my jaw very carefully and sure enough he told me it was TMJ disorder (oh I sure clarify I also got some x-rays done) and they both checked the x-rays and they showed me the left side of my jaw was hitting the roof of the joint and that was the cause of all my problems.
Finally, the maxillofacial suggests that first we get rid of my wisdom teeth to fix my malocclusion, and then I would get treatment from my orthodontist (I assume a splint) to fix my jaw.
So here I am, 5 days after my wisdom teeth extraction just waiting to go back and hear what's next...
So my tinnitus, it's usually manageable during the day, I'd say it's about a 4-5, I can drown it out with just regular noise from the outside and just having my TV on, but man during the night it SUCKS to go to sleep, some nights are better than others, also at first it was just the left ear but now I can hear a lower pitch in the right (is it weird that it goes away when I put my finger in my right ear and slightly shake it? Should I not do that?) and sometimes I just hear it like it's coming from inside my head.
I'm not trying to be negative, I'm hoping for the best in the long run, just the days waiting to go back to the orthodontist feel like an eternity, at least the headaches are like 90% gone and I can deal with vertigo and I hope whatever comes next will at the very least diminish this or maybe even eradicate it.
So yeah, that's me.
First, some backstory, I've gone to the same dentist basically since I was a kid, and the last time I saw him was about 2 years ago and told him I felt clicking and popping mostly in the left side of my jaw, he did some weird exercises on my jaw to "put it in its place" or something like that and he told me to use a night guard but it was this hard one for both the upper and lower teeth, so I used that for a while and I eventually stopped using it, the clicking was still there but it never really caused pain so I ignored it...
So, about 2-3 months ago, I started getting bad headaches and vertigo every day, the first doctor told me my ears were a little irritated, so he gave me some pills and sent me on our way, a few days passed and I wasn't feeling any better.
The second doctor told me I had something called Benign Positional Vertigo (I think) and he gave me some exercises to perform and some pills for the headaches, so a few weeks passed and the headaches came and went and the vertigo was just an issue when I lay in bed or sit up too fast and I thought "it will pass"
But then... I wake up in the middle of the night with a ringing in my left ear and thought it would go away but it never did...
Cut to me going to an ENT, he checks my ears and tells me they look excellent, and then he presses on both sides of my jaw tells me to open wide and not only did it hurt but it triggered vertigo when I did that, and sure enough he told me I had TMJ disorder, he gave me a tablet called Qual and then told me to go to an orthodontist.
So, I go and the first thing he tells me is that my teeth are VERY worn out from clenching at night (bruxism) and he said they are worst than a 60-year-old patient he saw, and that was the extent of my first visit, in my second visit, he was there with the maxillofacial surgeon and he checked my jaw very carefully and sure enough he told me it was TMJ disorder (oh I sure clarify I also got some x-rays done) and they both checked the x-rays and they showed me the left side of my jaw was hitting the roof of the joint and that was the cause of all my problems.
Finally, the maxillofacial suggests that first we get rid of my wisdom teeth to fix my malocclusion, and then I would get treatment from my orthodontist (I assume a splint) to fix my jaw.
So here I am, 5 days after my wisdom teeth extraction just waiting to go back and hear what's next...
So my tinnitus, it's usually manageable during the day, I'd say it's about a 4-5, I can drown it out with just regular noise from the outside and just having my TV on, but man during the night it SUCKS to go to sleep, some nights are better than others, also at first it was just the left ear but now I can hear a lower pitch in the right (is it weird that it goes away when I put my finger in my right ear and slightly shake it? Should I not do that?) and sometimes I just hear it like it's coming from inside my head.
I'm not trying to be negative, I'm hoping for the best in the long run, just the days waiting to go back to the orthodontist feel like an eternity, at least the headaches are like 90% gone and I can deal with vertigo and I hope whatever comes next will at the very least diminish this or maybe even eradicate it.
So yeah, that's me.
Member
