: jaw pain

[Guest guest]

Hi Lynn, the name of the joint is the Temporomandibular and the doctors refer to

it as TMJ arthritis. They test for this by asking you to open and close your

mouth and press on the TMJ joint line which is just front of your ears to see if

there is any grating, they look at your teeth to see if your uppers just overlap

the lower teeth. Another test is checking to see if you can put three fingers

vertically between upper and lower teeth into open mouth. Usually patients

with TMJ arthritis and scleroderma may not be able to do this. Pain can also

indicate your TMJ is flaring and will settle down like other joints hopefully

do.

Hugs

June

[Guest guest]

Hi June,

I hope you are right and this does settle down, it really hurts. Good thing

I can't eat anything hard to chew. My diet is so limited from the surgery. I

am hoping the RA and jaw thing settle down. It hasn't been a good week.

Thank you for your note and help. Hope you are doing okay.

Lynn (MeMom)

June Dixon wrote:

> Hi Lynn, the name of the joint is the Temporomandibular and the doctors refer

to it as TMJ arthritis. They test for this by asking you to open and close your

mouth and press on the TMJ joint line which is just front of your ears to see if

there is any grating, they look at your teeth to see if your uppers just overlap

the lower teeth. Another test is checking to see if you can put three fingers

vertically between upper and lower teeth into open mouth. Usually patients

with TMJ arthritis and scleroderma may not be able to do this. Pain can also

indicate your TMJ is flaring and will settle down like other joints hopefully

do.

>

> Hugs

> June

>

>