Approximately 35 million people in the US suffer from TMJ. However, very few know what they think is just TMJ, can really be a rare life changing disease. I am a 25 year old female and after an oral surgeon saw my x-rays I was told that I have the jaw of an 80 year old that has been chewing on...
Approximately 35 million people in the US suffer from TMJ. However, very few know what they think is just TMJ, can really be a rare life changing disease. I am a 25 year old female and after an oral surgeon saw my x-rays I was told that I have the jaw of an 80 year old that has been chewing on rocks. I do not just have TMJ my jaw bones have been eaten away.
I have had severe changes to not only my jaw, my bite, and my face, but to my life due to Internal Condylar Resorption. This is a rare disease that requires an even more rare surgery of total jaw joint replacement with prosthetics.
In 2006, I woke up with my jaw locked shut. Over the next few years my bite began to change to the point where I was no longer able to close my mouth. I am only able to touch on my back molars. After seeing numerous doctors and surgeons I was diagnosed with Idiopathic Condylar Resorption which has left me in unimaginable pain, has deformed my face, made breathing difficult, and I have to struggle to keep weight on ( due to my jaw bones having been eaten away). I am seeing Dr. Larry Wolford, one of the foremost expert on the condition, and will have to undergo numerous surgeries totaling over $150,000.
Worst of all, I have found many women that are going through the same struggle. Many of whom believed for years it was just TMJ. If this disease is caught in its early stages, such invasive life altering surgery is not required.
Many surgeons, doctors, and even other people with ICR disagree with my surgery, but there is so little information out there for us to go on we just do not know what to do.
Please do a show on this terrible disease that is silently affecting many young women. ICR is a pathological, noninflammatory, hormonally-mediated condition primarily affecting TMJs in teenage females (9:1 ratio females to males), usually initiated when they enter their pubertal growth phase. Doctors now think it could even be linked to birth control which is taken by millions of women.
There are so many of us out there with questions and probably thousands more that are being led to believe they just a severe case of TMJ. This show would help many people, spread awareness, prevent misdiagnosis of TMJ disorders, and hopefully answer some questions for myself.