Makes me want to rip my skin off please help
Hi! A little bit of a rant post but also would love some advice. I’m 22 yo female and Ive had TMJ symptoms for the past 6 or so years since I was 16 before I knew what TMJ was. It started with feeling like I couldn’t find a way to relax the base of my head when laying down and then the tingly and warm sensations spread to my shoulder, neck, face and sometimes my left hip? And of course my jaw. Feeling like I can’t turn off these muscles.
I went to PT but the whole time I was there I felt so dismissed and not taken seriously. After 8 weeks 2x a week with them I left feeling worse than when I started. Now it’s switching sides and I’ve developed ear fullness and I’ve started having these tics for lack of a better word? Like weird spasms and vocal tics. I’m a singer and guitar teacher and I was worried maybe I was using my jaw when I sang but my voice coach said my jaw looked fine. I am working on my general posture though especially when I’m playing guitar and teaching. But with ear fullness now, I feel like it’s making my music so much less enjoyable to work on. Now, it’s just painful and I can’t even hear myself properly.
I’m trying not to lose hope because I haven’t tried everything yet but it’s really hard not to. I cannot live my whole life like this. I’m looking into acupuncture, and something called a TENS machine? Has anyone used one of those for TMJ? I want to try and stay away from Botox if I can because I’m scared I won’t be able to sing properly if it goes wrong.
What I’ve tried so far:
- TMJ specific PT (8 weeks 2x a week)
- massages on the problem areas
- mouth guard (felt like it made it worse at times)
- applying heat (mild temporary relief 50% of the time)
- anxiety meds
- TMJ pillows (wasted $120 bucks on that)
Thanks for listening and hopefully that all made sense writing was never my best subject in school. I’m hoping someone will relate to some of the symptoms I’ve described and might have a success story I can learn from. I don’t care if there’s still clicking or limited mobility. I just want to sing and smile without pain.