Hello. Poss phantomTooth pain & a question about neuropathic vs neuroplastic pain

Hi everyone.

I just found this forum and am very new to all of this, so please bear with me as I try to get to grips with it all at the same time as trying not to do what I tend to do, which is dive into everything too much, too soon, as I know that won’t help my situation.

I found my way here through the Curable app, which I turn let me to buy “The Way out”, after having listened to the “tell me about your pain” podcasts, which I loved!

it’s early days with me… I had two dental extractions plus an implant in Dec 2020 (lockdowns that year were not kind to my teeth). No trouble at all after the procedure. Took painkillers for two days and was fine after that.

Then, in late Dec 2021 .. one year later… I started to get electric shock type pains in that part of my mouth (my upper left molar/pre molar region). I have one healthy molar between the two extractions and the pain seems to be coming from there, although I can’t be certain.. it may just be that’s the logical place for my brain to suppose the pain is coming from.

a trip to the dentist, no cavities, full dental x-rays of the area too.. nothing seemed to be wrong.

the electric shock episodes lasted from Dec 20 until Jan 2nd… then nothing … I thought whatever it was had “got better” until it started again in late March ‘22 and the episodes have been with me, on an off since then. My GP has referred me to a consultant, but the NHS (I’m in the UK) is in such a mess since the pandemic that I told I’m unlikely to get to the top of the wait list until December at the very soonest.
So I decided to see a private consultant and pay… Such an appt requires a referral from my family Doctor… and she referred me to the wrong dept (ear nose and throat!) so now I’m waiting for another referral to a maxillofacial consultant on June 8th.


I’m trying to approach my situation from within the neuroplasticity paradigm, as it’s pretty much all I can do by myself and I (of course) hope I will be able to support myself in this way. I am anxious though, as I simply don’t know what’s going on in my maxillary region and indeed is it something that is degenerative. I’m terrified of whatever I read about Trigeminal neuralgia too!

the ENT consultant I saw said that, although it’s not her area, she suspected neuropathy or implantitis. I’m not expert, but surely 12 months later would be a long time for an inflammation from an implant to appear?.

im trying not to Google too much (it’s hard when I have no other way to find anything out in the absence of medical support) but I keep coming back to one question … is there a difference between neuropathy and neuroplastic pain? Can they both be approached in the same way? If neuropathy is basically a misfiring nerve (am I right?) then can they nerve be “retrained” to be less reactive??

other random facts about me that may be helpful in speculating as to whether or not I have a neuroplastic situation going on are:

1 - I fit the personality traits to a T. Pretty much all of them!
2 - I had severe rosacea flushing from 2016 that was subsiding just before the tooth nerve pain started. Although I think the rosacea was triggered by sun damage in part, I am also pretty convinced there was a large element of stress involved.
3 - my work situation has been very stressful since 2005, although it’s improving recently, since a very challenging working relationship colleague came to an end
4 - I have experienced dizziness or putting my back out or cricking my neck on several occasions immediately before work trips I was anxious about.
5 - my pain starts when I think about it and when I’m anxious. No other triggers noticed.
6 - the episodes come and go. Nothing for days. Recently I had nothing at all for three weeks. This week it’s been pinging a bit though.
7 - for a while in April, my whole left upper and lower jaw ached. And for another couple of periods lasting a few hours I had what felt like standard toothache in the same area.
8 - interestingly, I had never heard of Trigeminal neuralgia until my neighbour said her daughter has it. I googled it out of concern for her and was horrified at what I found online. That happened just one month before my symptoms started. Coincidence? Weird, or what?

what do you think? Could this be neuroplasticity? And if there a difference between that and neuropathy and is so, what is it?

FYI I’m using the term neuroplasticity rather than TMS be use I find it hard to believe that what I’m experiencing could be due to lack of oxygen to an area of muscle. I am inclined to think that mind/body syndrome can be down to neural pathways in ways other than TMS… but once again, I’m. I expert, it just makes more sense in my case to think this might be some sort of stress/anxiety/emotional suppression or whatever manifesting as a symptom by taking the path of least resistance.

I’m grateful to have found this place and I hope to give back in the form of support when I become more knowledgable and more established here through time.

thanks so much and I hope you’re all doing well!

 

No-one?

Did I do something wrong, posting my first hello and question here?

 

Poor you, fear jumps out from your post. Leave physical symptoms out for a bit. Think about what is going on in your life? Relationships happy? Enjoy your job? Like where you live? Any contact with covid? Keep asking questions until your gut tells you something. Nothing is too small to consider.

 

It seems that my problem has resolved.. thank goodness.

in my case it turned out not to be a tms thing. I saw a maxillofacial specialist and he didn’t think the electric shocks I was having in one tooth were part of another problem he did identify.. he said my masseter muscles where over developed and that I was probably a night clencher. I started to wear a bite guard at night and, within about three months, the electric shock sensations died away.

as I said, the doc didn’t think that clenching would cause this, but it does seem to have in my case. I’m 100% sure the cessation of the shocks wasn’t a coincidence because a few months ago I stopped using the bite guard for three weeks and the sensations started to come back. I immediately went back to using the bite guard again and they stopped.

 

It sounds like this isn't quite "not TMS." Clenching your jaw muscles is absolutely muscle tension, which is driven by your nervous system.

That said, problems can have functional solutions, and it sounds like you found something simple and effective that handles the problem in practice.

 

I kinda thought the same thing, but, as a newbie to all of this, I wasn't sure if it would qualify as TMS, given that the issue was physical (clenching causing muscle spasms that irritated the middle superior alveolar nerve, that feeds the painful tooth) even though the cause of the grinding was probably stress...... although not always, according to the doctor there can be other causes of grinding too

Having said that, since the tooth issue, I have become hyper vigilant about sensations in my teeth and now I DO get random pains in different parts of my mouth that I immediately attribute to stress.. So there you are. I think in m case a bio-mechanical "injury" left me with other things to deal with.. ho hum

Im currently in the midst of Pain reprocessing Therapy for low back pain.. It's going well.. So I have for sure entered the wonderful world of Neuroplasticity now!

 

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I hear what you're saying..

If the clenching was caused by stress then hopefully the PRT Im now having will help with that too. Apparently night clenching can also be caused by Sleep apnoea though... and I did have that until I lost the extra weight.. so who knows? All do I know is that the awful shooting pains have stopped and Im very happy about that.