Atypical Odontalgia / Atypical Facial Pain / Trigeminal Neuralgia

I haven’t been diagnosed with anything really and have just been googling my symptoms but just wanted to see if anybody has any thoughts on my situation.

So a couple months ago I had a very minor dental procedure to fix a minor chipped tooth for aesthetic purposes. A couple days later I was biting my nail and bam I felt some pain in the tooth. The pain went away but came back 2 days later. I also got burning in the roof of my mouth and on the tip of my tongue. Dentists/endodontist didn’t see anything on X-rays/CBCT scan. I would wake up with no pain and for some reason the pain would come on between 10-12 pm and stay the entire day. I could wake up in the middle of the night with no pain as well. It all randomly went away after 3 weeks. I’m not sure if it went away because I believed it was TMS or not…I was definitely stressed/worried about it constantly though.

Now the pain came back about 2 months ago while I was using an electric toothbrush for the first time. It started out as the same tooth pain but then came the roof of the mouth burning (no tongue burning this time). I thought I could beat it like last but my symptoms increased and worsened. The teeth on the bottom of the top tooth that originally hurt started to hurt, then my entire mouth would ache sometimes, the tooth next to the original tooth started to hurt, jaw pain, and feeling of like a prickly sensation on different areas of jaw. I noticed the same like last time, no pain if I wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and almost no pain in the mornings or very little and the pain comes on around 11-2 pm then stays the entire day. I went back to the endodontist to see if anything is going on with the primary tooth that had been causing pain and it tests normal and she said maybe I have some sort of neuralgia going on. I even went for a cleaning a couple weeks ago to my dentist and he didn’t see anything on his X-rays either. A couple days ago I noticed possibly some tinnitus that happens only in the mornings as well for like 30 mins.

The pain is definitely ruining my life as of lately as it’s so severe and constant besides the mornings. I don’t even have an appetite anymore. I read up on atypical odontalgia and it mentions some patients can have no symptoms upon awakening. My doctor said I could have some sort of neuralgia or whatever but didn’t want to put a label on it. She recommended some nerve pain med for now. Again, nobody has really diagnosed me with anything but I’m not sure what’s going on!

 

Hi @Messyz and welcome.

I didn't read any of your detailed descriptions, because we're not medical or dental professionals here, and can't diagnose, and, if your symptoms are stress-based, the details are irrelevant - and that's good news!

Based on the fact that you HAVE been checked out and cleared of any obvious condition needing treatment, the question becomes: why not treat this as TMS? It's not like the professionals have anything to offer, right? TMS is zero-to-low financial cost, but it does require a time commitment, and, more importantly, a commitment to honestly give it a try.

What we call TMS is a combination of mindbody conditions and symptoms that result from a number of sources of stress. This can be current outside stressors - either in your life (relationship, family, job) or the world (it is well-acknowledged that the entire world is in a serious mental health crisis). Or it can be the result of lifelong anxiety, usually manifesting as a lifetime of physical symptoms that come and go, social anxiety, OCD, and/or depression. Or it can be the result of repressing negative emotions, as theorized by Dr. Sarno, sometimes (not always) as the result of serious childhood trauma, neglect, or abuse. In most of us, it's at least two of the above, and in a few, it's all of the above.

The goal of doing this work is to figure this stuff out, acknowledge it, face it, and find a way to accept and live with it. Your physical discomfort will decrease as a result. Even physical discomfort resulting from conditions that have been diagnosed can be relieved by removing the underlying stress that, as even the traditional medical community admits, makes everything worse.

I recommend that you start by doing the free SEP - Structured Educational Program - on our wiki, and go from there. Also, be sure to read threads on the Success Stories subforum here. You can do a keyword search and find ones that specifically mention tooth pain or TMJ.

Hint: don't get caught up on trying to find someone describing your EXACT symptoms. This is your brain on TMS, trying to convince you that YOUR symptoms are unique and that you need to continue to be afraid of them instead of learning to be mindful of your fear and learning to live without it. Don't be fooled!

~Jan

 

* Raising hand

Tooth, jaw, mouth, throat are big TMS areas for me.