I was wondering this too. For the past week everytime I yawn I get almost like pins and needles just on the right side of my face near my chin. Its now starting to do it even when im not yawning.

Yes, tingling in the face can be associated with tmj. It is downright amazing and aggravating what those silly little tmj joints and discs can do to the human body. It has to do with how close all the nerves and blood vessels/arteries are in our face. And don't even ask how much the muscles all have to work together perfectly or ouch, pain.

Amber, I noticed another posting from you and saw that you currently have the tmj under control. I try to tell people that it can be controlled with bite splints and a few other helpful suggests, but many don't have the patience and want a quickie fix or a miracle. Usually a fix such as yours can only happen if the problem is caught relatively early and no or little damage has been done to the joint and surrounding area.

But even then, it still has the possibility to heal enough that the pain can be a somewhat controlled. I'm an example of that. After pain for 20 years, the right combination - prozac, no-stress job, liquid diet, bite splint - allowed the pain to go completely away for two years.

But i'm finding that people want quick fixes or feel they have to have surgery (like a knee) to be fixed. Sadly, all tmj surgeries have such a low success rate that I would never do that to my body unless I basically had no more joint (which I do know a few people as such).

I got on my bandstand a little too much there, sorry. I mean to say about the tingling that you will have odd thinks happen (stuffy or itchy ears, etc.)and you'll wonder if something is wrong or is it the tmj. In most cases, it will be the tmj causing the effect. If you ask your family doctor what is wrong with you, if they aren't familiar with tmj, they may run expensive tests on you and find nothing wrong. Believe me, I am used to that.

So, if it doesn't hurt and it's not too aggravating, in most cases you can just add that to your tmj symptoms and enjoy your life. Good question to ask on these forums though, so don't ever hesitate to ask any questions no matter what it is.

I noticed that TMJ can cause the numbness or tingling feeling in your face. This has been going on with me for 3 years now. I had a CAT scan and everything was normal. Can TMJ cause the numbness to last that long? It is only in the right side of my face, kind of around my sinus cavity...under my eye, around my cheek, and in the roof of my mouth on the right side only.

Wendy,
I think you should have the numbness checked out by your doctor. Did you have any surgery or dental work that might have affected the nerves in the area?

I used to have face tingling and pain all the time, and some numbness, but I now take Lyrica which has helped the pain tremendously. I can still feel a few spots that are numb and tingling does occur, but not as much.

Massage therapy by a good MT can do wonders. Intra-oral massage is also great but make sure that the MT has been trained to do so and I usually recommend that the massage inside the mouth be just for a short time.

God bless...
Carol

i get this all the time. its not as bad now because of all the treatments ive had.

Mine is constant. It never goes away. Sometimes I don't notice it as much as others, but its always there.

what kind of doctors have you seen and what treatments have you had?

At first I saw a couple of different doctors, but I was pregnant at the time that it started and I could not have any tests ran. After that, I just kind of dealt with it, which I know was stupid.

Yes this is definitely a symptom. I used to have it all the time, now only once in a while. Sometimes its worse than having a constant pain because you never know when its going to kick in and it can do some weird things to you, I've almost felt like I was going to pass out before from this feeling. I hope you can get the help you need for it.

As far as dealing with doctors, you should keep going to different doctors until at least one of them gives you a diagnosis of TMJ, it seems like some doctors don't know much about it, I've been to a number of doctors, including two different ENTs and one of them seemed to have the attitude that if you don't have a major problem then this wasn't his area to be dealing with, he worked in a complex that is part of a hospital so I wonder if this had something to do with it (I figure he probably sees people with life threatening illnesses so to him maybe TMJ is just something to send off to a physical therapist or some other doctor). The other one had his own practice and seemed to deal with TMJ a lot more often and gave me the advice to see an oral surgeon about possibly getting cortisone injections.

Hopefully you have insurance that can help cover the costs of the appointments as they are incredibly expensive for how little time they spend with you, just keep trying, there's no reason to give up and settle with living with TMJ.

I have the tingling all over my face. Recently my doctor put me on Lyrica and it has really calmed the tingling down.

Beth