New to the group

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I was told about this group and have been looking at the messages

and everyone seems really helpful. To give you a little history, I

had an injury to my left TMJ in 1995. I wished I could do it all

over again, but in 1996 I had my first TMJ surgery. It was an open

joint procedure where the surgeon was going to put the displaced

disk back in place. I had tried splints and they made me have

terrible headaches. After the first surgery things went from bad to

worse. I tried to work with the os but he was sure things were

fixed and I was just a difficult patient. Needless to say, after

seeing many different doctors I ended up at the Mayo Clinic in

Rochester (I live in SW Missouri). By the time I was seen there, an

MRI was done and I had bone on bone in the left TMJ with no disk was

found. They were great, we tried conservative treatment for 3

months but I had to have surgery to reconstruct the joint. In 1998,

at Mayo a Christenson implant was put in and made a huge

difference. I still had some pain but my range of motion was

greatly improved and things looked good. However, in 2001 I started

to have problems again. Since there was metal in the joint, it was

difficult to see what was going on. We once again tried

conservative treatment, but the CT showed extra bone was forming

around the metal implant. In 2002, I had to have the 3rd open joint

procedure to remove the extra bone. This surgery lasted almost 4

hours, there was more to clean up in the joint than orginally

thought. Now, because the condyle was shortened on the left side I

have an open bite (I have 4 teeth on the left side that touch). The

braces were put on last Aug. and it has been horrible. The right

joint has gradually been getting worse. What has been happening is

I go to the orthodontist and end up in the ER the day after with a

migraine like headache. My orthodontist has tried to make the appts

short and I take preventive meds before going, but nothing has

seemed to help. I am going to have a surgical consultation at Mayo

4/13. I have been told I need a Lefort I. I really don't want to

go through it, but the pain is getting worse everyday. I have been

on a soft diet since the injury. I am concerned that the Lefort I

will cause more TMJ problems. Has anyone had TMJ problems and then

had bite problems due to the surgery? It seems like I need a

surgery to correct the last surgery and I am getting tired of it.

Sorry this post is so long....if anyone has any thoughts please

share them with me.

Greda