A 10 min video summarizing my jaw journey and how I got to this point, I know these issues are confusing and this video really could comfortably be 5 hours long, but thankfully tik tok has taught me that sometimes shorter content is more digestible 🙂

Timeline of my journey below

*All opinions expressed are my own*

I upload this content in hopes that it can help future patients avoid what I had to go through. Unfortunately, there are many of us online with the same story. Chronic pain, in medical debt from expensive treatments… all the while growing sicker.  Many treatments offered to people in this position are lacking in evidence and support from scientific and medical communities, many of which are not FDA approved, and others still associated with legal trouble¹.

In my own story, I had:

• Early retractive and extractive orthodontics before my skull was allowed to grow.
• Multiple TMJ specialists not ordering an MRI when my joints were clearly deteriorating (seen by the increasing open bite and pain)/ orthodontists and dentists treating TMJ issues.
• Splint after splint given, “Unfortunately, many primary care providers do not realize that data on the efficacy of this treatment is controversial at best and contradictory at worst.”¹

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TMJ Advocacy

The jaw joint is one of the most intricate joints in the human body and the least understood. Its effects on systemic health and comorbidities are also largely undescribed. Patients can spend most of their life seeking treatment and pain relief while ultimate disease progression is uncontrolled. Symptoms commonly experienced include:

1. Chronic pain
2. Inability to chew
3. Muscular and skeletal issues
4. Sleeping disorders and the associated organ damage
5. More, depending on the patient and time spent living with issues

Do we have research groups actively researching the causes of idiopathic condylar resorption and the associated TMJ issues? Do we have pharmaceuticals for the TMJ? Research and advocacy are both lagging and patients like me pay the ultimate price.

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Insurance

Many patients have to fight their insurance to cover TMJ issues. It is legal for insurance carriers to all together exclude care for TMJ issues, citing it as a dental issue.

Dictionary.com definition of “dental” below. Nothing about joints.

“TMJ issues are NOT dental issues, much like a knee replacement isn’t going to be performed at an office visit with a regular podiatrist, you will not be having any TMJ surgeries done at your dentist’s office through your dental insurance.”

–Micaela Montgomery, PhD, Co-founder of the Foundation for Condylar Resorption – https://www.condylarresorption.org/

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Citations

1. Agga and alf orthodontic mistreatment – meehan law LLC: MeehanLaw, LLC. MeehanLaw LLC. (2020, November 23). Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.ctdentalmalpractice.com/blog/2020/08/dental-malpractice-anterior-growth-guidance-appliance-agga-fagga-and-alf/
2. Singleton, R. (2022, February 24). Temporomandibular joint disorder is not a dental problem. The PA Doctor. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://thepadoctor.com/temporomandibular-joint-disorder-not-a-dental-problem/?fbclid=IwAR1TFvzmCd7E2ZUrbJ4IxgfjK5JS2gCckCE0lKLbskNCB0iAoztJO38sNdI