Clicking when swallowing could just be your Eustachian tubes. If you pinch your nostrils together and blow out gently, is it the same noise? Eustachian tube dysfunction and TMj is going to go hand and hand because the muscle tension in the face will cause overlapping symptoms.
you need to be very very careful when going to oral surgeons. If an oral surgeon is jumping straight to surgery, arthroscopic, joint replacement etc, you need to run away, and fast. If they are recommending orthotics/dental splints, run (I spent 3k only to make my situation worse). Take everything they say with a grain of salt and keep the TMS perspective in mind always. Less is more with TMj treatment.
you are a tmser. The odds of this issue just suddenly popping up after wisdom teeth removal is so unbelievably low. I unfortunately see this idea where if there is x physical finding it’s not TMS. All pain, whether it’s physical or psychosomatic is generated in the brain. Can arthritis cause pain? Sure. But that label often sends us spiraling, obsessing, we start expecting pain, we guard the area and we get into a vicious feedback loop of telling the brain that something is off, so it keeps pain going. You need to ask yourself, what good is this pain accomplishing? Because you’re still going to eat, you’re still going to talk. How low you go in reaction to your pain and symptoms is a big factor in determining whether the brain keeps them going. Because if you can’t get over that fear then there is less of a chance of being able to address the underlying things fueling TMS/nervous system dysfunction.
and to answer your initial question to me, no I never got a definitive diagnosis beyond the joint is damage and that there is significant enough narrowing of the space to be evident on the x rays. I didn’t ask further questions because frankly I was in distress and panic. And thankfully I didn’t. The first oral surgeon I went to was actually great and just recommended muscles relaxants and to let the joint stabilize. Unfortunately I couldn’t let go of guarding the area and obsessing so it just escalated the symptoms. Then went to a second doctor who was happy to scam a desperate person out of thousands for a useless splint.
my joint is not miraculously healed and ‘normal’, my teeth are clearly crooked and my bite is clearly off. but the body adjusts and adapts if we get out of its way. It took me a long long time
I think I had a micro dislocation maybe last summer but nothing since. However my rock bottom came January 2026 ( nearly a year after being TMS aware) because I could not stop scanning my jaw, touching the muscle knots, adjusting the jaw back and forth. I almost killed myself from that pain that I caused. Obsession, fear, and despair do utterly nothing for you.
and I unquestionably have arthritis/joint damage in my jaw. You don’t have 20 dislocations without it. The nature of a dislocation is damaging to the joint. Yet I have my lowest level of symptoms and have days with no pain. How is that possible if it’s not TMS. You don’t need someone with your identical situation. You need to sit down with yourself and reflect on how you’re treating your self. Because honestly it sounds like you treat yourself like utter trash.
