Temporomandibular Joint Disorder - I have beeen diagnosed with TMJ last month. After 5 years of?

I have had TMJ for the past 8 years, and just like you, I had to go through so many different doctors & specialists before I found a doctor that finally realized it was TMJ. I actually had tmj surgery about 5 years ago and luckily my insurance covered the entire cost becuase it probably helped for about 1 year. All my oral surgeon did (and from what he said they only can do) was clean out the jaw joints and removed any cartilage debris around the areas. You would think by now, if your cartilage is worn out due to the grinding and constant pressure, they can add cartilage in you jaw joints like they do in knees, etc. but every specialist I went to said they don't do that "yet". Anyway, after the surgery, they wanted me to get the mouth guard and it was going to be $500. I couldn't see spending this much money for that so I went to the local drugstore (CVS or Walgreens) and bought one there and it was like $40.

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I molded it to fit my teeth and I used that for about 4 years after. The pain never went away but the grinding and pressure stopped. I'm sure the $500 is more effective (I would hope so anyway) than the $40 one but to me, it served the same purpose. I've also been taking the muscle relaxant Soma 350mg for about 7 years. That is the ONLY prescription, whether it be pain pills or other muscle relaxants) that actually helps relieve my pain. Every other pain pill/muscle relaxant never did a darn thing except cost me my co-pay for the different kinds I tried. The only bad thing with Soma is it's highly addictive and that's something I'm sure I'll have to deal with whenver I can stop taking them but for now, they say there's nothing else to help my pain and another surgery would be pointless, so I keep taking the Soma 350mg 3-4 tmes per day. Luckily I live in Las Vegas where there's no humidity & rain but when I go back to NJ to visit and the weather is bad, the pain kicks in more and I end up taking more than what I'm prescribed to take each day. I know it's not good to do and I know the risks of doing that, but being 33 years old and in this much pain, if that's what works and that's what I'm stuck doing, then I don't have a choise. You may want to try the Soma though and depending on your pain level, you may not need up to 4 pills per day and if you take 1 before bed, you will sleep much better because the pills relieve the pain & pressure of TMJ. A LOT of doctors hesitate to give you this because of it's addictive nature but (and this is only me speaking for myself) if yours won't give you any, go to the next doctor, and so on until you find one that does. My doctor is great and her and her husband have their own practice and she knows the risks but she always has me come in every 3 months to check myself out and every 6 months does a complete blood test to make sure my kidneys and all are fine and nothing is out of the normal. So with my short novel, I hope this helps you and if you have any questions or whatever, feel free to write. Good luck and just know you're not alone in this because trust me, I would rather have the flu every day rather than TMJ.