Hi,

I would really appreciate peoples advice!

I started having a lot of issues with stiff necks and eye tension and sometimes feeling a bit off balance. This all started when i started working full time in IT sitting behind a pc all day and then on the couch after that... before that i was so healthy, fit and active. I worked in IT for about 6 years, hen after blaming all my problems on pc's recently went back to uni to change career. The past 6 years was pretty much a downward spiral in how i felt.

I looked into all sorts of things as to why i was feeling that way and one thing i always wondered about was TMJ. I recently went to an ENT guy and he did all the tests including ear and balance checks and and MRI. Everything came back fine which was great.

Now here is where things went bad! A couple of weeks before my ENT tests i went to my dentist for a checkup and while i was there i asked him about TMJ and whether it could be the reason for my issues... he had a look at my bite and said that it slides to the left a bit as the teeth contact... next thing i new he was telling me to sit back and then he would make a small change and that it wouldnt make anything worse... WRONG!! after he made a "minor occlusal adjustment" everything felt weird! felt like my jaw was all over the place almost as if beforehand my teeth were pulling themselves into a secure position and now they werent. He took some off the inside edge of my left top teeth which is where it was contacting and dragging to the left.

Since then i became obsessed with my bite and did a lot of clenching... i also did something i shouldnt have done and in frustration knocked my jaw from left to right resulting in a pop and crackling noise in my right jaw... it didnt hurt but started making crackly noises after that.

trying to wrap up this story...

since then i have been to a dentist with special interest and knowledge on tmj... he said it doesnt look like much was taken off my teeth but that he cant know for sure... he made me a splint which i have only just started wearing.

since all of this happened i have had pressure around my ears, at times feeling more off balance than before, tinnitus noticeable when there isnt much else noise, and just feel crappy cos of it all! my bite also seems to be touching on the left before the right now, which i dont understand cos that is the side he changed. and my ears crackle all the time which i can do on call... i thought i would also note that i have been told that i dont have any noticeable tmj clicking in my jaw.

im starting to think that maybe the issue was my neck and head alignment and that the dentist cut the string that was barely stopping all of these problems from getting to what they are now!

now im worried this is going to be a problem i have to live with forever and im only 27! keep regretting letting the dentist do what he did!!!!

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!