Hi Jennyflame,
It appears that your bite may have shifted. Frequently this means that the disc within the joint has been "caught" outside of its usual position or has been damaged/stretched/trauma. You now need to treat your jaw like it has been sprained. Use lots of moist heat and ice directly on both jaw joints (right in front of your ear). Take up to 800 mg. of Ibuprofen (with soft food) if you can tolerate it. Try not to use your mouth as much as possible for a few weeks - eat softer foods or liquids, talk as little as possible and no gum chewing or wide yawning, etc. Evaluate how you are sleeping - do NOT sleep on your stomach. The back is the best but with a good cervical pillow you can sleep on your sides but don't put your hand under your face and don't stretch out your neck while sleeping.

You need to relax big-time and you might need something like Valium to take at bed-time for a couple of weeks. Or a muscle relaxant. Have a friend or someone give you shoulder and neck massages if you can. Hot tubs are very relaxing.

The grinding or clenching must be stopped right away. I wouldn't be surprised if this caused the "trauma" to your jaw. If you know that you are gritting, you are probably doing more so during the night while you sleep. There is a rule that we should never bring our teeth together, and while in resting position, the tongue should rest on the roof of your mouth, teeth apart, lips together (relaxed and can be slightly apart). Think about keeping the jaw, neck and shoulders down or relaxed. One person I know "cured" his clenching problem by keeping his tongue between his teeth. I don't know if that is good for all, but it worked for him.

I'm running out of time, but also evaluate your posture (check out nismat.org/ptcor/tmj) and add Super Vitamin B Complex and Magnesium to your daily diet. Relax anyway you can. Stress is the number one enemy of TMJ. Please ask all the questions you want and hopefully we'll all be able to help each other.

God bless...
Carol

and eat soft food--if it hurts to eat dont eat it. use ice and heat on it

Thank you both!

I bought a bottle of Advil's today. I'm going to try to not sleep with my hand under my face, I know I do that too. I didn't realize that it could effect it also. I also found that eating popsicles helped a lot. They weren't as hard as chewing on ice or ice chips, but probably not the softest thing either.

This might be a good excuse to eat ice cream and soup all week!

yes it is---also you should not sleep on your stomach. side or back is the best.

I always sleep on my side, but I was putting my hand under my face before.

yeah do anything that will reduce pressure to your face

Update: It's been two weeks now and counting. It's lessening during the day time hours, but it feels the worst just before I go to sleep. I've gotten use to the pain so I stopped taking so many advils. I've been doing so many things to lesson the damage that I might be doing. I guess it's something I need to start getting used to.

There are treatment options that you can consider too-----watch your posture and dont do anything that puts pressur on the jaw.

I read in some of the advices that when you have TMJD its not good to open you mouth wied, i was wondering how can i brush my teeth if i dont open my mouth wide?

well its actually not to open wide for long periods of time.for instance at the dentists office--tell them you need a break every 5 min or so. you can open wide just dont over do it.

What is the difference between a dislocated jaw and TMJ?