tmj

[pstuart]

I am quite sure I have tmj:
inner ear pain on and off - no infection
slight swelling around tmj
Loud popping when closing jaw
pain under ear area
pain moves around  -some good days,some bad
neck and shoulder, upper back pain
Any feedback would be much appreciated

[avisg]

Yes that does sound like TMJ ,look in the phone book see if you can find a specialist . If not I think you will have to go to a dentist , you can talk to your family doctor about it but they will most likely tell you there is nothing they can do for you. Let us know what you find out.

[jdesouza]

Hi,
I had really bad TMJ and was told that there was not much I could do about it. I also had periodic locking of the jaw. Unrelated to the TMJ I had orthognathic  surgery to fix a bite issue and an unexpected side effect was that it really helped my TMJ. I no longer have any locking issues and the pain is much much better. I still don't think they recommend surgery for TMJ but really wish they did more research in to it as it really helped me.
Hope you feel better.

[Hamidreza Nassery , DMD, FICOI]

Your symptoms are actually very common among my patient population, I treat people like yourself.
A good place to start, is top3dentists.com  look for Nueromuscular dentists in your area. The good news is that there are traetments and they are not surgical most often.
If you can not find some one, let me know and I will try to get some ones name for you.. but above is a good start. you can not get on top3 unless you demonstrate a commitment to education.