TMS and Dental Pain

Shanshu Vampyr

Shanshu Vampyr

Well known member
Friends,

Anyone ever have experience with dental type pain that turned out to be TMS?

Background info: Long-time TMSer here, card-carrying. :)

First TMS manifestation: TMJ (so that might be relevant). Prior to yesterday, last saw a dentist over 2 years ago (busy at work). Guilty of not flossing daily, like I should, and used to drink a lot of soda. :/

Told yesterday that I have 4 cavities, one in each quadrant. Also: something about periodontal disease, with a mild amount of bone destruction that you can see on X-ray. :/

The pain which brought me to see the DDS is a mildish, aching pain in the upper R molars (there's one very specific point of pain when I press on my fingers). In the general vicinity of one of the cavities.

Same pain has previously been stress-related, so I was hell-bent on this being a TMS spot.

Background info on me: lots of uncertainty about my life, including career and future directions.

Proposed treatment: fixing the cavities and something called "dental scaling and root planing." :O

Problem is, I don't have dental insurance and it would be expensive to treat.

Thoughts?

Thank you.
 
Hello love,

I've spent some time in the dental realm with my tms. While my teeth are fine my dentist thought my pain was due to grinding and for a while I accepted this. Hard not to as bruxism is an unconscious behaviour, my life has had a fair share of stress and my pain is concentrated in the general area of my mouth. I recently learned that my actual problem is a loss of myelin to my trigeminal nerve. There is no pain like it and because this nerve feeds the teeth I am very, very mindful of dental care. When I believed it was a classic case of tms I passed through a short-lived phase of trying to decondition myself and this ramped everything to high heaven. I can sadly attest to why trigeminal neuralgia is called the suicide disease. So in the interests of not aggravating matters daily I have sought out alternative methods of dental care. As with doctors, dentists are typically quite conventional and we typically lap it up.

There is an Ayurvedic healing method that is gaining much ground. It is called oil-pulling and it's a means of throughly cleansing your teeth, mouth and entire system. There is a known relationship between mouth health and the general state of ones being and this practice embraces a complete healing philosophy. There are numerous resources on line and some interesting vlogs on youtube.

Here's one link on the basics:

http://www.oilpulling.com/oilpullingandoralhealth.htm

The beauty of oil-pulling is it is very simple to do and very cheap. I think it's worth a shot before you sally down a major treatment path.

Here is a link to a hypnotic recording that I have used.

http://m.potentialsunlimited.com/products/details/?id=925
http://m.potentialsunlimited.com/products/details/?id=53

Our teeth, gums and bones can heal completely. It's natural for them to do so. I hope my words give you an insight into that possibility. You said recently that we need to sometimes give healing a shove to help turn the tide so I offer the above in this spirit.

A final link on a recent tms/tooth pain thread that ended well:

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/can-dental-tooth-ache-be-tms.2937/

All the best my dear.
 
Hi, Vampyr. First I'd suggest getting a second opinion. One dentist may want a new white Cadillac more
than another. Second, avoid root canal or root work as much as possible. Dentists seem to be root canal crazy.

As for fillings, my dentist said I needed six of them. I said I'd wait until I got a toothache.
That was about eight years ago and I haven't had any toothache.

Think TMS. You've got several heavy concerns and they may be causing the toothaches.
Career and future directions may be causing them.

Write down what you like to do, what you're good at, and see where that takes you.
 
@ plum and @ walt glenview:

Thanks for both of your posts. @ walt: it's not a root canal he suggests, but a deep cleaning. Non-surgical.

There definitely is a tensionalgia component to this because yesterday, when I was most worried about it, the pain was moderately bad. Woke up this morning telling myself not to stress it, and it's significantly better now.

@ plum: Will look into your links. All the best for a healthy and happy trigeminal nerve. :)
 
Search the net for triggerpoints, which are mindbody symptoms, and the connection between tp's and dental pain. It might be a factor in your situation.
 
Shanshu Vampyr said:
Friends,

Anyone ever have experience with dental type pain that turned out to be TMS?
Click to expand...

About four years ago I started to have a lot of dental problems. I thought it was just natural decay but after some of them were fixed I kept getting weird pain in my teeth. I started a paleo diet, very rigid (trying to get rid of my fibro pain) with a list of certain vegetables I could eat, a certain amount of animal protein and lots of natural fat. I also had to eliminate all possible toxins of my personal hygiene etc. very strict. I also took 10 basic supplements. After a year and a half my teeth became stronger and no more weird pain. This diet was based on the book by Weston Price "Physical and Nutritional Degeneration", who was a dentist that practiced better nutrition to fix dental problems, he did other studies, but because this is about teeth I am telling you this part. I did not follow the diet because of my teeth, this was a non anticipated positive side effect. Could this be also tms ? Maybe. Now I don't follow the diet so strict, I do now eat more protein and natural fat (mostly butter and coconut oil), but I always think that my teeth are now healthy and perfect, maybe part of it is also mental but I am convinced nutrition is also very important.
Try to think positive, not be afraid of dental problems if there is no real danger.
Leonor.
 
Lenor, sounds like you found a good diet to help you have healthier teeth.
I ate a lot of candy, ice cream, and soda as a boy and teenager.
I was always having toothaches and at the dentist.
I wound up with a partial upper plate for several years and then
when I was about 24 I had a full upper plate put in.
That was more than 50 years ago and I haven't had a toothache since.

So the worst scenario for teeth trouble is have the d---ed things out. haha.
 
Friends,

Thank you for all of your advice, I really appreciate it. Well, I went the conventional route *this time*. I figured, since it had been 2.5 years anyway, since I had seen a dentist, I might as well comply with his recommendations. And also because I have a tendency to drink soda (or did) and do all the stuff that's generally not good for teeth, I figured it was due time. Wipe the slate clean, but be obsessive about proper tooth care afterwards. So I had the 4 cavities filled and the dental scaling and root planing and it wasn't bad at all. Now it's up to me to take good care of said teeth and know that since they were comprehensively worked on, I can rule out future tooth pain as a TMS equivalent.
 
PS Those floss pick things are cool anyways.

PPS Anyways, in a show of strength, and since half of my mouth was numbed up anyway, I asked the *very cute* dental assistant to punch me in the jaw. She declined.
 
A couple years ago, I had some pretty bad toothaches that would spread up from my tooth into my head. Any exercise or vigorous motion would cause a pounding headache. Due to bite issues, my two upper canines have been ground down and are basically flat, which really worried me. Went to the dentist and she said my right upper canine was cracked and probably dying and I'd have to get a root canal. Went to the endodontist for the root canal, and he said it was a normal surface crack ("craze line"), my tooth was healthy and just worn down and I'd have to see a neurologist about the pain. That scared me half to death and the pain thankfully resolved shortly thereafter. I think in retrospect this was probably one of my first bouts with psychosomatic pain.
 
Walt Oleksy said:
Hi jazzhands,

Looks like TMS has been causing your tooth problems.
Click to expand...
Hi All!
Thank God I found this thread! Need some mental reinforcement for TMS and tooth pain. I had an implant done last year and it was quite traumatic. Everything that could go wrong, did and I ended up with draining fistula fo about a year. Every time I have appointment with oral surgeon my stomach acts up so I know there is some connection with TMS. I am now told that implant is failing and have to have it removed and have bridge put in. More money, yikes!. Then I recently had pain in another tooth and had root canal done. But I had that fixed and new crown put on but still have pain in that tooth gum area and now starting to have shooting pain in tooth above it when I bite onto something like a small seed from blueberry, etc. So now I am avoiding chewing on that side. Want to avoid more needless dental work. Could all this really be TMS? Once I am convinced it is, I am sure all will subside. Thanks for any advice!
 
Shanshu Vampyr,

I understood you had your cavities treated and scaling and root planning done. I can only tell you one thing: it was the only right decision to take (and I talk from experience ;)).
If TMJ, grinding or clenching teeth, jaw pain and things like those do relate to TMS (although other factors may be involved like occlusion), I totally disagree that cavities or periodontal disease and teeth infection in general have anything to do with TMS. TMS can aggravate those for sure, like grinding teeth will make TMJ worse, or can even crack a tooth in extrem circumstances, it first has to do with oral health and nothing else. Genetic is involved of course, but good and proper oral health is what makes the difference.
It's a biological process that when we eat, the digestion process first starts in the mouth with you chewing on food and the saliva breaking it down with enzyme. As a result of this, a thin layer of plaque remains on your teeth. That's what we are supposed to remove while brushing and flossing. If you don't do it on a regular basis, or if you're not doing it correctly, plaque will evolve to tartar that will be impossible to remove with a tooth brush. If not taken are of, this evolves to gingivitis, and worse : periodontal disease. Nothing to do with TMS again : there are bad bacteria developing under the gumline and starting to destroy your bone support. Note you can have very good teeth i.e. no cavities, and still have periodontal disease. Note that in many cases, it becomes chronic and you need to see your dentist or a periodontis to do this deep cleaning on a regular basis. They actually do a light maintenance, which is enough. But it's worth doing it, because it prevents you from having any further problems and to loose teeth at the end.
You can check for instance Dr Mark Bonner for periodontal disease information who explains into details what bacteria are involved in this nasty process. But there are plenty of videos out there explaining this disease. Bonner has a different approach to tackle it which is less invasive and seem to give very good results. But in your case, since you took it early enough, and if you do regular maintenance, you shouldn't have any further problems down the road. Note that the way you brush/floss is much more important than any fancy toothpaste they advertised on commercials ;). Toothpaste is a big market, but at the end of the day, the mechanical process is important. You can brush perfectly with just water without toothpaste that nowadays contains unfortunately a lot of chemicals. What is important is to remove the plaque. Of course, healthy food helps to keep good oral health. Animals don't brush their teeth, but also don't have the same regimen as we do ;). Eating a lot of process food, sugar and drinking soda will make things worse.
 
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