Lock Jaw question

[HDV]

This is a question being asked by my sister.
She experiences her jaw locking up on her ever couple weeks. Usually when she wakes up in the morning. She was at the dentist a couple weeks ago and while he was cleaning her teeth her jaw locked and it took him a while to unlock it. He was very concerned and told her to go to her doctor and get her to check it out. Well she went to her doctor last week and the quack told her that when it locks up to write her feelings down..she said it was becuase she is holding in her feelings that this is happening.....
She did not order xrays r anything to see if there is a problem, she just passed it off and told her to write her feeling down when it happens. Like come on now. If she does not knw what t do at least send her to someone who does.
Soo we went to a friend who is a chiropractor in the soo here and she said she treats tmj (sp) but does not have the xray machine that checks for it. I guess its a wrap around machine. Her jaw dropped when she heard what the doctor told her..
Anyways.
Anyone else have this happen where your jaw locks up and any advice?
And no the writing her feelings down does not help..lol.

[Luv'inLife]

I have tmj...tell her to go back to the dentist and tell the dentist what the Dr. said...the dentist can x-ray. Its a condition called Bruxim[sp] and the will make he an appliance to wear at night[night gaurd] so she cant clench or grind, and it does help.

[HDV]

She says she does not grind her teeth, but I told her, you don't know what you do in your sleep..lol.
She is going to go back to the dentist and let him know what this quack said. The dentist was very concerned about it. She sees a nurse practitioner at the GH, so shes not really doctor. But she should still know that she should of sent her for tests and not tell her to write her feelings down..lol

[Tutones]

I also have tmj. At one point my jaw locked in place for six months and they had to freeze it with a nitrogen spray to get it unlocked. It can happen from clenching or grinding of the teeth. When the jaw locks it is because the disk in the tempomandibular joint is slipping out of place and causing the joint to become immobile. It needs to be treated. It can also cause headaches, earaches and shoulder, neck and back pain if left untreated. She may not even realize that these symptoms are related. Tell her to go straight to her dentist - they will prescribe her a night guard for initial treatment and discuss other options if that does not work.

Typically, if she is experiencing jaw locking, ultrasound treatments to the area are required to relax the muscles and the joint before the night guard can be used. Facial massage also helps.

Good luck. That doctor truly sounds like a quack.

[dancingqueen]

Go to the walk in and see a "not quack" IMO

[b&aMom]

Oh my gawd...write down her feelings? That's priceless. LOL Maybe the NP actually told her it's from tension first, and she missed that part? Regardless, the chiropractor and dentist will probably provide the most help, anyway. The dentist should probably be able to tell if she's grinding by the wear on her teeth. My husband has a night guard he has to wear for it, as well.

You can have TMJ without grinding your teeth, though. If your bite is off sideways, it can happen pretty easily. This has been my problem. It was helped to some extent with braces when I was young, but not totally fixed. I still have to be careful not to really move my jaw sideways too much, or man does it hurt and my lock up.

Hope she gets some permanent relief soon.

[HDV]

Thanks guys, I will pass along this info to her. Th dentist told her to go see her doctor and the doctor told her to write her feelings down. My sister said it was almost like she did not know what to say so she started to babble about feelings and holding it in. I dont know..
But sh did make a appoint. with her dentist again and hopefully he can do something. He said though that there was no evidence of teeth grinding thats why he was so concerned. But i guess she will have to see what happens after she goes back to the dentist.
She has perfect teeth. I think she may have a minor overbite, but not anything that u notice. Like she does not have buck teeth or anything like a tiny little overbite. But other then that her teeth are perfectly straight.

[b&aMom]

HDV, her teeth may be "off" at the back, that's where my problem is. My upper teeth (placement of them), at the back, are shifted to the left, and the lower to the right. Each just a bit, but when I bite down, my upper and lower molars don't quite meet properly. This is what I meant by her bite being off. If this is her case, the dentist will see it.

If he/she sees no wear from grinding, she may be a clencher, like me. When I get tense, I clench my teeth together, which tightens my facial and jaw muscles. I also do it a lot because I have an "oral fixation" thing...if I'm not smoking, then I'm chewing the inside of my cheek, or something else with mouth movement. Kind of fidgety with my mouth. If she does that kind of thing, the muscles could be affected and tighten. Wonder if chiro or the dentist could teach her some muscle relaxation techniques, and maybe some self-massage in the jaw/ear area?

Hope she gets some relief, it can cause a lot of headaches.

[HDV]

She went to the dentist yesterday but I have not talked to her yet. She does bite her cheeks alot. After u mentioned that I thought of it right away, shes always chewing her cheeks..lol..
I ll find out what the dentist said when I chat with her today.

[HDV]

Well I guess the dentist told her that her NP was a quack..lol and gave her a mouth guard for sleeping.