JAW Questions?????? | Arthritis Information

Well this jaw thing. Hmmmm it is getting sort of bad. Alright it is pretty bad. So for those of you with RA in the jaw.

Do you think a swollen jaw could give you a sore throat, I mean a swollen tonsil? I just always have a swollen tonsil on that one side. The side being the one my jaw is worst on.

Oh of course I will see the doctor. Maybe five or six of them as a matter of fact.

This is the sort of thing that makes me think I will never complain about prednisone again. It does come in handy from time to time.

So I am sort of in different spirits different times of the day. That is when the pain meds start to ware off I get sort of semi misserable. Not a way of life I look forward to. Well I mean of course I look forward to life. I just would much rather leave the jaw pain out of it all together. I just can not come to terms and embrace this jaw thing and except it into my life.

Other than that all is well.

Snow the collar sounds great. I almost got one last week for neck pain. This is not tmj. It is arthritis. I take muscle relaxers flexeril and a heavty dose of Lyrica everyday.

My fault for being in pain. I tried to cut back on the pred too soon. All of my other spots flared back up along with the jaw.

I have been suspicious for a long time that I had arthritis in my jaw. This is with out doubt RA in my jaw. I have been to the dentist. I go regularly and will see her again in a few weeks.

I see the ENT tuesday. He has been telling me that my jaw was a big sourse of my ear pain. I did not believe him. Well I do now.

I have an appointment with the RD next month. Well I could go for a very long drive and see him sooner but I do not think I will do that. I went on vacation instead. LOL

I have much swelling and much pain. It feels more like bone cancer then tmj. I am on lots of pain meds. I went ahead and took the twenty mgs of pred yesterday and feel better today.

I guess I was more worried about running out of prednisone before my RD appointment so I was thinking if I could do ten mgs a day it would last longer. My docs are not so big on prednisone long term. If they do then it is usually 5 mgs for a daily dose.

I have the twenty for now. I guess I will just wait until I cross that bridge to worry about it. I will just have to be insistent and persistant and have them keep me on the twenty mgs of pred until we get this RA under control.

Actually the docs have been very nice about the jaw thing. They have never cared that much about my feet or my right arm or anything else. I do have to admit the jaw is more difficult pain wise to control.

I am fine in dealling with it all today. LOL Because the pred has kicked in. I have an achy back and throbbing toe to keep my mind off of the jaw pain. I slept for the longest. Well past noon and it felt great to catch up on my rest.

The swelling is pretty apparent today. LOL The swelling does not bother me. I sort of like people being able to see my RA for a change.

I did feel the other side of my jaw wanting to get in on the action last night. So far the right side is not as bad as the left side yet.

When you have a flare come on you know pretty much that it is RA because of the way it hits you. All of this pain in different places coming on all at the same time.

Well I am reading a good book so I will get plenty of rest.

milly2010-09-10 14:10:18Jaw pain is awful.

Even if caused by Ra, it will still be called TMJ or TMJD (the D stands for disorder). It can often cause ear pain. I often felt like I had a double ear infection. I also use to get awful forehead pain, neck, shoulder, back...you name it.

If it is really bothering you, you need to get your dentist to refer you elsewhere. There is very little your RD can do. Especially if you feel like your opening is being restricted. The average opening is about 3 fingers. Take your pinky finger, ring, and middle finger. They should be able to fit when you open your mouth. I still can't get my pinky and ring yet...but we are working on it.

Most Tmj is actually due to muscles. People with chronic conditons often have tmj due to pain. We clench are teeth and grind at night due to pain. Muscle pain feels exactly like joint pain in that area. I get tons of sympathy when people hear that I have had the bilateral replacement. I feel for those that have the muscle issues. There isn't as much that can be done for those with the muscle problems other than meds, splints, and PT.

Finding relief from TMJ can be a looonnnngggg process so get started if you think it's a real problem. Be very cautious when drs give you a treatment plan. There are a ton of docs out there who will tell you they can fix it, when they really cause more problems to begin with. I have been told many times that only 5% of patients need surgery and only 1% of those 5% need a joint replacement. For instance-my surgeon only does 2 or 3 TJR a year. Conservative treatment first is the name of the game.

You can expect to be prescribed a splint. Probably to be worn only at night. Many insurance plans don't want to cover TMJ but if it is coded as RA, it should be picked up. Get yourself to a dr and see what they have to say. Jaw pain can quickly get worse. If you feel better today-YAY!, but still call your dentist and get a referral. Jaw pain bites! (ha ha that never gets old!).

I can still open my mouth. I guess I have not aquired any scar tissue in yet. My shoulder is a different story. So I know over time it could get worse. That is if it is like my other problem areas.

For now the prednisone and higher dose of pain meds is offering some relief. I mean it is still there I have break through pain ect. but the swelling is down so it is not as bad.

Certainly not the sort of thing one would want to let get ahead of them if at all possible.

I am the queen of tendonitis that is true of the rest of my body. This flare my achilles was the first order of buisness that got me down. One foot on the floor one morning and I sat back down in a sweat.

This is one of those flares that took over my chest and my arm pits even hurt. Full blown flare I guess one would call it. So I had already called the doctors before the jaw started, however by the time they called me back I was able to tell them my jaw was also swollen and not a dental issue because I had just returned from the dentist.

I have too many anti bodies in my head. This tends to leave all of the doctors scratching thier heads and feelling bad because they do not know what to do.

The Sjorgren's does not help. I get all of these swollen glands. You would think I would not notice tmj with all else I have going on already.

Well I did notice and it is awful. I have had it for a bit because my face has been more swollen on one side for a long time. This even between dental issues. I have usually more pain from swollen glands along the jaw line. I think it is Sjorgren's thing because I get them in my eyes also.

Also Sjorgren's tends to cause one to get more ear infections anyway. So I really do get bad ear pain along with fever and such more often than most people.

I guess it was just I had hoped for a bit of relief between ear aches and tooth aches. I am a bit dissappointed. I roll with the punches pretty well so I will try to manage.

Keep an eye on me I have a head concusion. Stood up into the cubbard yesterday. Forgot to close the cabinet door over head before I went down digging for the coffee creamer.

Glad I was on pain meds for that headache. Hmmm maybe I will get a ct scan tomorrow if I am still alive.

I blame the two year service plan for my Moms laptop for this accident. That is I think they are taking advantage of people and one headache lead to another is all I can say. All I wanted was a cup of coffee a mist the comotion. Bamo! A good knock in the head usually reminds me slow down.