I met with my specialist yesterday, he took another measurement of how wide I could open. Recall, 3 weeks ago I was opening up at a level 28. Yesterday, I opened at a level of 41 with no pain at all. The doctor says that a healthy range is 45-50 (I'm not sure what units these are), so I'm really close to done with treatment. At least this part. Unfortunately, my specialist said that I'm actually CLENCHING at night more than I am GRINDING. All of this clenching has created spacing in between certain teeth that were not there before. So, here's the rest of the plan. (I will say, for others struggling with TMJ, braces are not always a plan of treatment. Some don't struggle with the clenching like me. So this is just my particular treatment plan.)
First, I will finish phase 1. This means for the next 3 months I will wear my orthotic only at night, during exercise, and maybe on the days in which some of my symptoms come back. The reason I wore it all day and night for the first three weeks was because this reduced the inflammation that was happening in my jaw muscles. I will meet with my TMJ specialist in three months to see if my jaw is fully healed.
Second, I will have to have some sort of orthodontic treatment. Because my jaw will be placed back in it's place, my bite will be severely off. I've already noticed this. My top teeth and my bottom teeth on the left side of my mouth do not connect when I chew. This has been since my jaw has been realigned and is due to my initial clenching over the past 6 years of my life. Who knew all this was going on in the back of my mouth?! Anyways, braces will be placed on my teeth to correct my bite once my jaw is fully finished.
Third, my smile will be normal again.
This post probably isn't really interesting to some of you. But it was really for my own documentation anyways:)