Low testosterone question

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Hi,

Christine, it sounds like its definately your jaw joint called the temporomandibular joint (TMJ for short, though not 100% sure of the long spelling!). It can happen on only one side, but its usually both. Perhaps you just slept on your side or head turned to side and had your hand under your cheek or slept in some other position that caused it to hurt that one day. It can come and go. For me, I mostly had the problems that Erin describes in her post (popping noises, etc, when moving jaw side to side and up and down) when I was in my late teens to early 20s and it seems to have "resolved" itself as I've made no lifestyle changes or dental work that could have changed it. I'm 30 now. I just now have periodic problems, mostly when I'm under stress and I don't find out about it until its too late and I wake up with the sore teeth (can cause stress cracks in teeth if you grind) and/or jaw -- but my pain now usually stems from the sore jaw muscles, my mouth feels all stiff, or the sensitive teeth, not the jaw joint itself. To "test" for the TMJ problem, after listening to my concerns, my dentist put his fingers in my ears and had me slowly open and close my mouth, and he could feel the joint slipping or rubbing or whatever. I have had several "appliances" made for me over the years to treat both my TMJ and my sleep apnea. These are just simply little mouth inserts made of plastic or silicone like material that work by pulling out your lower jaw so that you can't bite down with as much pressure where you normally bite at night. Works wonders! For sleep apnea, it helps to keep the mouth/airway open. But they are not all that comfortable, sometimes fall out of my mouth at night, etc, and so I don't use them very often. If I'm under stress, know ahead of time that I'm exhausted so badly that I probably won't sleep well that night (more apneic episodes), or already have the pain, I will wear them for a night or so to help get things back to normal. If you don't have insurance, they only cost about $100 to $150 to make. Very worth it, in my opinion!

Good idea to ask your dentist friend. Probably something that will just be forgotten about in a short while, may never return. Hopefully! :-) Take care and let us know what you find out, and whether or not it becomes more or less of a problem for you.

--
Marshella (I LOVE my dentist! He's the greatest! I have forgone
insurance offered by my employer that he didn't take just so I would not
have to switch dentist and if he moved out of state, I'd drive that far
to my appointments!)

At Thu, 21 Oct 1999, Christine wrote:
>
>Marshella,
>
>It's the joint right by my ear and mainly when I chew.  It's feeling a
>bit better today.  Maybe I was grinding my teeth or something.  I have a
>friend who had that problem for a while and it made her jaw hurt as
>well.  I have a friend that's a dentist perhaps I'll stop in his office.
>
>Thanks!
>
>--
>Christine

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