TMJ/ TMD Journal
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
TMJ and chiropractorsRemember that TMJ can throw your spine all out of whack and can create awful symptoms such as dizziness.
As you know I suffered dizziness for about eight years before I finally found help thru a chiropractor. Over those eight years I had gone to many specialists including chiropractors. No one could help me until a chiropractor was suggested to me by a friend who found relief from her own dizziness problems.
The proper chiro who was finally able to help me worked from RECENT Xrays he took in his own clinic. That doesn't mean to go out and look for a chiro guy with his own X-ray machine. LOL. Just make sure you have one who will either send you in for X-rays or will work from an extremely recent Xray. I had several chiropractors...one worked from an X-ray that was 5 years old. One worked from a Dental x-ray which showed part of my neck. And one told me he didn't work from X-rays because X-rays harm the body...when I told my current chiropractor about these other guys he literally laughed! And wanted to know how do those chiropractors know what is wrong with your spine if they don't have an X-ray?
Which now makes sense...but when one is desperate we kind of take anyone's word who says they can help. Right?
Within a month I noticed a big difference. No dizziness. No real off balance problems. Headaches were going bye bye and the muscle aches throughout the body were getting better...so I suffered for eight years from something that could have been helped within a month...
Don't do what I did...Instead do your research about how to get a good chiropractor, if that is the route you choose to explore.
Here's a link where you can find info about how to find a good chiropractor:
http://www.servicegrades.com/articles/choose_a_chiro
The above link is supplied by Dan who says a chiropractor fixed up his problems.
Check if your chiropractor is any good by using Dan's link:
http://www.servicegrades.com/search-for/chiro
These above links are supplied compliments of Dan. Thanks Dan!
Hope the above helps in your search for help.
jan
I received the following information from a fellow TMJ sufferer about our SCM muscles. SCM are the sternocloidmuscles. These are the large muscles that come from behind our ear and move down our neck to beneath our clavicle.
When you have tmj these muscles can also be affected because if our jaws are out of alignment then it affects our neck and the rest of our body. SCM can affect our head movements and how we breathe and swallow.
Check it out, especially the Symptoms section:
Attachments:
Sternal Division: Lateral surface of mastoid process / front of manubrium
Clavicular Division: Lateral surface of mastoid process / upper border of the front of
clavicle.
Action:
Flexes neck and head forward, bringing chin to chest. Flexes neck sideways,
bringing ear to shoulder. Stabilizes head (as a "check-rein) when tilting chin
upward, or during talking and chewing. Assists in swallowing.
As an accessory muscle of respiration, SCM lifts upper ribs in breathing when
neck is erect or hyper-extended (not when head is bowed).
Entrapments:
May entrap spinal accessory nerve (cranial nerve XI) en route to trapezius causing
weakness in trapezius or torticollis of muscular origin. SCM motor fibers often
originate as part of the vagus nerve.
Symptoms:
Sternal Division. Pain referred upward to cheek and sinuses, occiput, eye
(orbicularis), top of head; pain referred downward to sternum. Tearing of eye, visual
disturbances when viewing parallel lines. Chronic "sore throat" when swallowing,
possibly with a chronic dry cough.
Clavicular Division: Pain referred bilaterally across forehead; frontal sinus-like
headache, ear ache, nausea, dizziness, car-sickness, faulty weight perception of
held objects, and hearing loss (reversible).
Strained by:
Whiplash injuries, structural faults (short leg or small hemi-pelvis), overhead
painting, carpentry, wallpapering; horseback riding, front-row movie seats,
coughing, chest breathing, working for long-periods with head turned to one side
("word-processor headache").
Many thanks to Anna for supplying this information.
Hope this helps our fellow TMJ sufferers :-)
Have a good one!
jan
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Still doing good!Jeepers! I really have neglected this diary. My apologies!! I guess when we are feeling good we tend to forget that others are still suffering with this tmj crap!! My sympathies. I think about people who have this problem everyday. I still wonder how I was able to handle it.
But handle it I did!
The best advice I can to folks suffering tmj, dizziness, headaches, blurred vision, off balance, etc...is to never give up looking for help. Sure you can take breaks from searching but in the end do follow through on any leads you get.
Never lose hope. Never let a quack doctor tell you "it's all in your head" or "you'll have to learn to live with it".
I was told both of these by my doctors. Sure it depressed me for a few days, but I always managed to pull myself out of it and continued to look for help. If they cannot tell you EXACTLY what is wrong with you then it is your duty to yourself or whoever is suffering to look for some sort of help.
Needless to say I'm out of pocket thousands of dollars because I didn't go to a proper chiropractor right after my first car accident. LOL. Eight years of hell could have been avoided.
But I am feeling a hell of alot better now!!!
It's funny how the right chiropractor can help. I went medical doctors, did all kinds of tests, and they found nothing, nadda. When I finally get a chiropractor who seems to be interested in educating me about the spine - I feel better within a couple of months. Sure I'm angry because I suffered for so many years on something that could be fixed within a short time span. But I can't let it get to me...too much
One thing you should do is to research what a chiropractor knows about the body. It's really amazing how the spine can affect your health.
And tmj can make your whole spine go out of whack too. Because when the jaw is out of alignment then everything else is going to slowly go out too. It makes sense, right?
Anyhows I'll leave you with the hope that if I ---who was dizzy for eight years - loaded with aches and pains, and feelings of tilting to the side, off balance, headaches several times a week, tight neck muscles, shoulder pains, back pains etc...can get help, then any of you can get fixed up too.
Just keep looking and never lose hope!!!
Hugs!
jan
