Hello everyone…….I wanted to type up a note for you explaining my TMJ journey tonight. I know that a lot of you are suffering and I want to give you all hope out there so you don’t feel like things will never work out.
My TMD started immediately during traditional ortho. Horrendous muscular spasms….neck and back pain….and locking and popping of my joints. The locking closed was torturous, and would leave me exhausted with extreme high anxiety for days. My mom had no idea what to do and the dentist (who is still practicing frown emoticon just told us to use a heating pad on the affected muscles. I was 17 years old and terrified. From that moment on….my life has never been the same.
Throughout the last two decades plus i’ve tried numerous types of treatments along with physical therapy, acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, NM massage, reiki, you name it. I’ve worn NTI deprogramming splints, upper splints, lower soft and hard acrylic splints, braces, with little to no pain relief. One splint, which was made by a prominent doctor in Chicago left me literally bedridden, and unable to take care of my two kids and live a normal life. I wanted to die. I felt as if things were hopeless, and after spending over 100K in failed treatments and PT, how could things ever get better????
I would put my two young kids to bed and stay up all hours of the night researching….talking to other patients in the US and all over the world about their experiences. I literally emailed and called dentists from all sides of the globe. I picked apart their treatment styles….talked with their patients, read case study after case study…….then I found Dr. Clayton A. Chan and his websites and FB pages. What he wrote about just made sense. I read every link….scrutinized every photo and learned about Gneuromuscular Dentistry and what it was all about. I was hooked. Over the course of 6 months or so, I was on FB TMD forums….both public and private, and we made it so the patients could feel comfortable talking openly about their experiences, along with the practicing dentists….and we all learned so much from this.
I am truly thankful for the dentists that took time out of their lives to inform us and help us learn and discover about GNM dentistry, and all aspects of TMD, not just GNM but the mechanics of the jaw, how it relates to the musculature, and the entire body….everything.
My dentist, Dr. Ramin Mehregan Dmd , along with an Atlas Orthogonal Chiropracter …both have given me my life back. I have a long road ahead of me seeing i’m starting phase two this summer and i’m overjoyed to start fixing my occlusion again after so many years. I am an extremely severe patient so it will not be easy for anyone….but we will prevail. I have a lot of damage and trauma from failed treatments and my central nervous system over the years has taken a huge beating. I had every symptom in the book!!
With that said, I welcome any questions you all may have about my journey….I’m truly here to help. Please don’t hesitate. smile emoticon Peace to you all. – Jill Blank
DR. CLAYTON CHAN'S BLOG NOTES 