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Sweetheart,

My TMS manifests as TMJ (and trigeminal neuralgia). In the early days, just shy of 20 years ago, I first saw a dentist who told me I clenched my teeth and that this was the cause of my pain. I was fitted for a mouthguard that didn't help at all. Over the years I tried other mouthguards but none helped. I finally saw a different dentist who confidently asserted he could remedy the problem through a procedure called equilibration which essentially involves filing down the proud tips of teeth to ameleriote the effects of pressure. The fact that my top and bottom teeth don't and have never rested atop one another was lost on him.

It was an expensive and entirely pointless procedure. I wish I had never bothered but I was desperate, not the least because this whole business played havoc with my trigeminal nerve. The only positive that came out of this experience was confirmation that my facial and neck muscles were tied in triggerpoint knots. I would later learn how these are a consequence of TMS. (@Gigalos has written some great posts on triggerpoints and TMS).

I came to see that TMJ truly is TMS and that the clenching and grinding is entirely due to tension and stress. The structural aspect is a red herring. Once you calm your body~mind, you calm the insane pressure exerted by the jaw.

The jaw is the main place I hold tension. It is the main place most people hold anger that goes unexpressed or that is chronically felt. It is classic TMS. For me it manifests most brutally when I am stressed out of my mind and yet it eases to nothing when my heart and mind are at peace. To this end it is a great touchstone for those times my rage to soothe ratio is out of balance.

I've penned quite a bit about all this during my time here but in a nutshell my best advice is that you must do whatever you can to resolve any stressful situations in your life, maintain a gentle exercise program to manage tension levels (I swim and practice Yin Yoga), and become finely attuned to the way you hold tension in your jaw and get good at letting it go.

The other thing I found helped was a hypnotic CD by a woman called Denise Lynch which is lovely and relaxing to listen to at bedtime. I bought mine on Amazon but here is the link to her site:

http://sam-rogers-s7nh.squarespace.com/product/freedom-from-tmj (Freedom From TMJ)

I notice Kalo has posted as I have been writing this and I have to endorse how fruitless surgery is. I consider this to be comparable to back fusion surgery in that it is a go-to procedure for people who don't know any better. Thank god you do possess knowledge of TMS. All you need do now is look to soothing yourself and exploring the many positive posts regarding TMJ here at the forum.

Take good care,

Plum x