My stats: 29 Years old
Male
185lbs


My story:


About 6 years ago (2003) I was involved in an assault that caused massive injuries to the side of my head with swelling around my ear. The swelling went down and I didn't notice much pain after a maybe a week. Around this same time I was dealing with some dental issues. I had a root canal that I decided didn't need to get capped (it cracked and infected about 3 years ago).

Sometime over the next year (2004) I started to get headaches and can still feel some small swelling in the area of the injury (almost raised veins). The headaches are dull but consistent for the last 5 years. Sometimes stronger than others but usually only strong in bursts.

Shortly after the headaches started I began getting the "fullness" in both of my ears. This is without a doubt the worst part of this ordeal. It is not painful and has not affected my hearing but it couldn't be more annoying. I have not been able to clear my ears for 4 years. I've tried ear drops, q-tips, nose spray, ibuprofren, etc....nothing helps. When it is really bad (like now), I can actually feel noises in my right ear such as key strokes. It seems to almost beat in my ear.

This was also accompanied by a strange dizziness periodically. It almost feels like small earthquakes. I have actually asked my wife a few times "did you feel that".

Other strange symptoms:
-Mental cloudiness / fatigue (this could be cause I am getting older too)
-Occasional back pain (might not be related)
-Very pressure sensitive above right eye. When touched just right gives an immediate headache.
-About a year ago, I had a strange sensation that liquid was moving around my skull.
-Asthma (probably not related but maybe important info)
-Post nasal drip (very bad for about 6 months but not a problem for the last year or so).




I was sure that the injury from the fight cracked my skull and created a tumor or cranial leaking(as irrational as that sounds). My doctor could feel some of the swelling 4 years later (2007) so he took xrays and told me it was just stress causing an old injury to act up much like a broken foot. I went back 3 times and he basically told me to relax or I was going to go crazy and that nothing was wrong.

I havent slept right for years because of this. I have self diagnosed by google"ing" in a collection of my symptoms and it always leads back to TMJ.



By the way, I clinch my teeth 24/7. I wake up like I am driving a race car with my teeth clinched as hard as possible. I recently bought OTC "stop clinching" rubber mouth guards and find myself basically chewing on them as I drive around. I didnt realize how much I did it during the day until I had this in.


My cracked tooth is fixed. My bite is a bit off....I touch my right molars first.


Is this TMJ? Is there help? Am I crazy.....lol?



One more side note: I have a small sebaceous cyst on the right side of my head above my forehead. It sometimes seems to be a pressure point and source of the headache as well. Probably not relevant but wanted to include all details.



Thanks for reading!