Hello,
A few days ago after going to an orthodontist to get started to finally get braces I was wondering why he kept putting his fingers in front of my earlobes and asking me do I feel pain or hear a popping or clicking noise everytime I open/close my mouth. At the time I didnt feel any pain and heard a little bit of a clicking noise but I didnt tell him that. After going home and wondering why the ortho kept doing what he was doing I stood in front of the mirror and put my finger in front of my earlobes like the ortho did and began opening and closing my mouth. I then noticed that everytime i'd open my mouth wide my left jaw would feel as if it had popped out of place then when I'd begin closing my mouth my bottom jaw would began to slightly shift to the right, pop back into place, then go up straight in regular position. Thats when I start getting nervous. I start searching the internet for answer and soon found out that I might indeed have tmj. I realized that everytime I yawn I hear a clicking noise in my left ear, my bite is bad, my smile and two front top teeth were crooked, my teeth were worn more on my right side than my left, I chewed my food mostly on left side (which could have also caused my tmj..i think), my ears rung sometimes, I took a hit to the left side of my face near my earlobe (which left a bruise) when i was 15 yrs old, I sometimes have earaches especially in the winter, i hear a clicking noise in my left ear everytime I swallow, and I need braces to not only straighten my two front teeth but to align all my teeth and close the spaces on my bottom since I would two molars on the bottom removed like 7 yrs ago due to a bad root canal. I have all my wisdom teeth too but they are not bothering me, what should I do?