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pain in jaw and spinal problems

I was reading about the jaw and spine connection in one of your answers. Here is my story in a nutshell.  In 2005 I began have nerve pain and muscle spasms in my mid back.  One time the muscle spasm was so intense that it literally traveled up my back, thru my left neck side and pulled the left side of my face down.  After that it developed into neck pain, front and back, and excrutiating arm pain frequently.  I felt and now feel all the time that something is pulling my mouth down.  It feels like my neck muscles and then my mid back pulling everything down.  It is painful, embarrassing.  I have alot of facial pain that feels like its in my massiter muscles and connected to my sternomastecloids and then down to my back.   I also fell my pterygoid muscles hurting and pulling.  So my question is did I blow it when I got a cervical fusion because my arms feel 100 percent better, but I still have all the other syptoms I have described.   I wonder if it is all from TMD (and its a fact I grind my teeth and wear a nightguard)  and if it is do I have any hope?  Can my jaw still be helped and maybe the rest of me.  Thank you for your thoughts on this.

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748543 tn?1463446075
Your condition and symptoms are very common among my patient pool. Your estimation of the connection between your jaw and thecervical spine is absolutely correct. If you have read my previous posting about "best traetments for TMJ" and read through the list of patients recounting their symptoms I am sure you will find many that have similar issues. As for the cervical fusion, I uderstand that it has provided you with relief of your hand pain and weakness but it is obviously at the expense of rigidity and lack of movement. The proper course of action would have been to correct the jaw position into the correct physioilogic position and with some therapy with a good chiro, or PT you would have had the same result  without the irreversible surgery.
You should still try to find yourself a Neuromuscular dentist and try to get your jaw into a more comfortable position..
I hope this helps..
Helpful - 0
736603 tn?1236891563
I to have tmj and spinal problems. I had braces on my upper teeth which corrected my bite many years ago. Now I have been having herniated discs at 5 and 6 and have been seeing a chiropractor three times a week for the last 8 weeks. I am walking straight again regained strength in my right arm wrist and hand that I havent had in years but the tmj is back. I think it started with the traction I was going through. It also affects my ear. Since I've stopped the traction because of my jaw I am losing strength again in my upper back. My lower back though straight is still difficult for me to be on my feet for long periods of time. Chiro has helped me alot but it seems I have platoed . I diffenently agree that the spine is correlated with the jaw and everything else. I'm so sorry you are having to go through this and that I don't really have the answer your looking for but I'm here if you need support. take care!
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