Tina & Mackenzie's Journey - TMJ

I don?t blame every dentist or physician for what has happened. But I do blame incompetency and lack of common sense when treating patients. What I will say is the finger pointing that goes on with medical blaming dental and dental blaming medical is absolutely awful. In reality there needs to be more education on this matter. My daughter was fairly young when she had braces. It was during this time I found out that she was born without a permanent tooth next to her teeth in the front. This explained why she never fully lost her baby tooth because there wasn?t a tooth coming in to push it down. Once we were at the Ortho?s office we were given 2 choices. (1) Push all the teeth forward to close the gap in the front or (2) Have an implant. Looking back I assumed the (Orthodontist) would know more than me. However, now I am being told that since my daughter was so young, the correct procedure would have been to have a retainer made with a flip tooth attached. This way, once she was fully grown, she would then receive an implant. You see, moving all the teeth at the top should basically align properly with the bottom and even the opposite side. Doesn?t common sense tell a person that? I am mad at myself for not recognizing this! However, at the time I took advice from an Orthodontist which I later found out the title is even in question. **Note. General Dentists can do Orthodontist work. The difference is the years spent in school and the knowledge. Had I known this, I would have thought twice about my decision. Throughout the time my daughter had her braces she complained of headaches and not feeling well. I, like many parents were under the impression that her teeth were moving and the movement was causing some pain. What I wasn?t aware of was the events that would take place after her teeth were completely moved and her alignment was completely off. Fast forward to April 17th 2012, my daughter?s 16th birthday; Mackenzie had been complaining of not feeling well and looking back I never thought of the timeline of the braces. Mackenzie was sitting in class and had a wave of vertigo hit her to the point where she couldn?t move. With her head, jaw and neck hurting she sat frozen not knowing what to do and her teacher noticed immediately. She was sent to the Nurses offices where I was called to pick her up. I was about an hour away and I called my friend who lived 1 block from the school and asked if she could help me. It was from that day forward we spent much of our time in ER and at the Kaiser clinic trying to figure out the problem. For the first 6-8 weeks we waited to have an MRI to the brain. There was speculation that she could have a brain tumor. I remember waiting for those results on pins and needles and also remembered the relief I felt when there were no tumors shown on the MRI. However, my daughter?s condition continued throughout summer as we moved forward not knowing what the problem could be. By August school resumed and she was driving herself to class. One morning as I dropped off my youngest daughter I received a phone call with Mackenzie hysterically crying. She had to pull off to the side of the road, where she sat with her head spinning, in pain and her ears ringing loudly. She said ?Mom, I can?t take this. If I have to live like this the rest of my life, I can?t do it? My daughter is not a drama queen. She took after her father with his calm nature. I knew when I heard those words just how bad she was and that she was trying to be brave. I called her Dad and drove to her parked car where she sat crying. I remember feeling so bad because I didn?t know what to do. Today like so many times I felt confused. As I took her to her next appointments, her general MD insisted this was psychological. Against my better judgment I agreed to have her be seen by a therapist. I have to say her father and I are no longer married however we have always gotten along. I sat there thinking back on any type of incidents this could contribute to what she was going through. I will never forget when she came out of that meeting. She said ?Mom, I DO NOT have any mental issues. There is something NOT RIGHT! Why doesn?t someone believe me! I took one look at her and told myself we would NEVER! Go back to another therapist appointment again until we found out what was wrong. I have to say the Kaiser system in my opinion was nothing to write home about. By October I had to leave work constantly to pick my daughter up from school because she was so sick from the constant spinning in her head, pain and the ringing in her ears. I mean honestly! Think about it! If you had constant dizziness, headaches, jaw pain and ringing in your ears, how would anyone deal with it? Perhaps have your head over a toilet throwing up? Crying? You get the picture! I even wrote the school in regards to construction work going on and if they had checked to see if there were any signs of black mold. Looking back I must have looked like a lunatic not knowing where to turn. Sometime in October I decided to write on my Facebook wall if anyone had heard of this condition. I basically put my story out there for some kind of help, reassurance and/or support. I?m one of those people that some people love to hate. Some people would never place a personal story like this on their FB wall. For me and many others I guess the initials ?LOL? stand for more than just LAUGH OUT LOUD and could stand for more of a LIVE OUT LOUD approach. Hey! We are all different and thank God! There are people who LOL so others can be made aware that they are not alone! Within a couple of hours of my post a FB friend by the name of Jonny wrote his story about TMJ and the exact similarities he shared with my daughter. I sat there amazed at his description of vertigo, ringing in the ears, jaw pain, headaches etc. I now had something to go by and my mission became even stronger. It was during the time I describe above that a dear friend of mine that has now passed away suggested switching general physicians at Kaiser. I did just that and found a wonderful new doctor who listened to our story. The problem is that not every specialty Physician at Kaiser shared her enthusiasm of TMJ. You see, once you get into this black hole of TMJ, medical wants to blame dental and dental wants to blame medical. It?s a horrible situation to be in. By November Mackenzie was so bad that her previous Physician had already written her out of school. She could not function longer than a few hours without having to lie down. Thank God! My boss and co-workers understood. At least to me they seemed to be understanding. I don?t know how they even dealt with how much time I had to be away from the office for appointments and taking care of my daughter. Not to mention I have a younger daughter, who has to be at school on time, has homework, projects and the whole 9 yards. As a parent you start questioning everything. There were days I would look into the mirror and think ?Who are you and where did your humor go?? Nonetheless we went forward with this journey. We continued our journey outside the Kaiser system. We took her to a TMJ specialist and A Maxiofacial specialist. It was at these visits we found out that because of her teeth being moved and her alignment was off she had group function on one side with interference on the other. **Exact notes from Physician. Also noted were her teeth being worn down like an older persons from her bite being off. The vertigo was worse, headaches more frequent, and jaw pain was constant. **Note! She is 16. I would always say to people ?Don?t ask me, just talk to her.? There are so many things that happened in between the beginning of this journey up until now that it would take a book to cover it all. At this time, I will finish with the following: My daughter had to quit her job she enjoyed and was unable to drive long distances. I was to my breaking point when I ended up contacting the original dentist telling him my story and asking him what he could do to repair what he had caused. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt but knew we were in big trouble when we went to his office and as soon as she lied down in his chair he started filing down her teeth without us signing any paperwork. He admitted he had not taken any after pictures of her treatment and that he was a trial and error kind of guy. Ummmmm ***Note ? Not something a parent wants to hear at this point. I became a barracuda in finding out everything I could about TMJ. Being uninformed I thought TMJ was a clicking of the jaw. BOY WAS I WRONG! I contacted TMJ.org TMJ hope and anything TMJ I could get my hands on! This is a horrible! HORRIBLE! condition that has destroyed lives! The public needs to be educated as well as dentists or anyone working around teeth and/or the skull. If I am one of the ones to do this then so be it. I am ready for the challenge! Like everyone else, our lives continue. I will not let this go! I want to let other's know what can happen when certain decisions are made. Since this has happened, I have been put in touch with other's that this has happened to also. This is a 16 year old girl who has her life ahead of her and has missed out on some of the most important events of her growing years. For anyone! I mean ANYONE! Who has or is suffering through this ordeal, my heart goes out to you. People can be so insensitive when they do not know about the matter at hand. One step at a time we can make a difference for anyone who is currently going through or will be in the future. After all, isn?t that what life is all about? In a world that was once thought of as flat and where primitive people have lived, we have formed a world of high tech knowledge and cures for illness. This is yet another area that needs to be addressed.

As I build onto Our TMJ parent website, I hope this can help other's find support in knowing that they aren't alone in their journey