As I mentioned in an earlier blog, when I had a tooth extracted on Feb. 3, the oral surgeon kept my mouth propped open over 30-40 minutes, so my TMJ has been causing severe pain for the last 10 days. It's finally settled down enough so I can sleep through the night (after 8 days of waking up when the ibuprofen wore off).
HELPING TMJ PAIN - I learned some exercises that help, one is opening your mouth and pressing your finger against your cheek to stretch the band of muscle that works your jaw and tightens when TMJ sets off. Another exercise is raising your chin/lean your head back, and hold. That also stretches the muscle. It works. Also, try a heating pad on and off.
SOMETHING GOOD FROM SOMETHING BAD - Turns out I can't sleep on my left side anymore without the TMJ shifting the jaw and causing a headache that will wake me up. Implants are now out of the question because of the length of time you have to keep your mouth open, so I'll look into a denture or something. On the GOOD Side of things, my sense of smell has increased again. Each time I get a tooth out, I can smell better. That's because most of my upper teeth grew INTO my sinuses... which created blockages. Something good from something bad.
EYE SAY... EVERYTHING WEARS OUT! - I just had a bi-annual visit to the eye doc, and have to get reading glasses now because of my astigmatism (I'm near sighted, but the astigmatism has increased and made close-up words look like they're glowing). So now I'll have distance and close-up glasses. I opted not to get bi-focals at this point. Ah, the joys of getting older. :)
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