Post by sunny2day2 on Oct 10, 2005 15:26:58 GMT -5
Hi everyone, I'm new here... your posts have all been really helpful and I see that you're all very understanding so I thought I might post one of my own...
It's a long story, almost ridiculous...
One year ago (almost to the day) I had an accident whereby I fell on the top of my head from a height. My head healed up quickly but unfortunately I had broken my upper front left tooth. I had broken about 3/4 of it off, so what remained was about half of the back section, which was totally open to expose all the pulp and nerve. Major trauma!!!!! I cried for weeks.
Went to A&E that night/early morning to get some initial work done. My local hospital couldn't do it so they sent me to another London one. Their dental section wasn't open for another seven hours (they opened at eight in the morning) and I knew I couldn't wait as I was in absolute agony so I went to another London hospital across town. They did an emergency root canal and put some stuff over the top of it that looked a bit like white blu-tack. I was still concussed and everything happening seemed a bit surreal.
That held for about four hours and fell out that afternoon. It was the weekend so I waited until Monday to make an emergency dental appointment. The dentist I had was new and seemed relatively experienced. He finished off the root canal and reshaped the remainder of the tooth, put some pins in it and added lots of resin to make it big enough to support a crown. He put a temporary crown on. I said that it wasn't comfortable as my lower teeth were banging into the back of it. He said that was normal and probably a result of swelling in my jaw from the accident. That temporary broke out that evening so I went back the following day and had another one put in. Exactly the same happened. This happened for about a month during which time I went through about 18 temporary crowns (all on the one tooth) and eventually managed to have a permanent one put in. I still felt like my lower teeth were banging into the back of this and I raised this again and again with my dentist who said that this was normal and would stop.
This porcelain crown lasted about six weeks and smashed spectacularly a few days before Christmas. I could have died. It was replaced with a porcelain/gold one. I asked my dentist again why my lower jaw was pushing into the back of my front tooth, making it bend forward from my gum and eventually causing it to snap in two. He said that I probably had some jaw disorder and would give me a soft mouthguard to reduce the damage it would cause my teeth.
I had to wear the mouthguard 24/7 (which was very unattractive and embarrassing) to stop my new tooth from smashing and from wearing down the lower teeth that were impacting upon the upper. However, after a while I noticed that I had bitten my way through this guard and was continuing to grind my teeth (I never had done before). I was given a couple more but the same happened and I was just tearing them to shreds at the point where my lower front tooth contacted my upper. It looked like I was trying to push my front teeth forward or my lower teeth backward, maybe that it what my subconscious was trying to do.
After a few weeks I noticed that when I took the mouthguard out, my teeth, including my molars, didn't fit together correctly. They made a horrible cracking noise if I tried to put them together when I spoke or ate, and generally felt like there were loads of sharp angles and pointy bits in my mouth that shouldn't have been there.
I was given a hard acrylic plate to wear on my lower jaw to help this. It was agony (because I later was told it hadn't been made correctly) and made the situation a lot worse by breaking other teeth that it was in contact with. There was constant pressure on my upper teeth from it. I couldn't speak or eat.
I went to another dentist who tried something else. He gave me a hard bite plate to wear on my upper jaw with the idea that my upper molars would erupt downwards, meet the lower ones, and hence my front teeth wouldn't clash. I presume this was some sort of guesswork as this a) broke my teeth and the restorations further when I bit down on it and b) when I removed it my teeth wouldn't fit together even more.
He asked a friend who worked at a denture lab to put some extra acrylic on it behind my front teeth that covered all the way down the back of my front teeth. It was extremely awkward and I was always breaking it, spitting out bits of acrylic and bits of tooth. It made my jaw so much worse as my lower jaw would skate around uncontrollably and not sit in one place. So much so that one day when I was talking my lower jaw skated randomly around, caught my upper front tooth and broke the crown at the bottom, SNAP!!
So because my teeth wouldn't fit together any more he recommended a further plastic mouthguard which was yellow and very embarrassing. Again, this made my occlusion a lot worse.
So the situation got worse and worse and worse. Eventually I came across a prosthodontist who told me that none of the general dentists I had seen were qualified to deal with my situation and that they had made it a lot worse. Makes me sick considering this took a year, I am in pain every day and it cost me in the region of £12,000.
So my prosthodontist supplied me with what he calls an "aspen" plate on my lower jaw. It's ok and I can eat and talk most of the time but it breaks a lot and I still find that it puts pressure on my teeth and bends them out of place. I know it's better that the plate breaks rather than my teeth but I still find it traumatic.
The problem is that bits of it snap off every few days and eventually it will disintegrate entirely. I have just moved to Barbados and can't find anyone who is able to make another, which means me flying back to England next time I hear a SNAP!!! I can't function without it so it will have to be an emergency flight that day.
The situation at the moment is that my teeth are extremely uncomfortable. I can't lie on my side because the way they touch breaks them (I am extremely anxious about it all when they click and grind together out of my control and probably grind them as well now). My lower teeth still smack the back of my upper front teeth, which still breaks the restorations every few weeks. I am in pain every single day. I constantly hold my teeth with my hands when out with friends to try and keep them in a comfortable position. I also try to push my chin backwards to stop my front teeth clashing so much, so people think I'm a bit weird.
I have also developed a mental disorder with it. I seem to deliberately try and "test" the reconstructed areas. Every time I have a glass or a knife I try and bite on it to see what will happen to my front teeth. Obviously I don't want them to break and this is just some weird nonsensical impulse whenever I have something hard, like keys for instance, in my hand. I have to bite it. So to try and stop it I use straws with my drinks, and don't use metal cutlery. Obviously this is all very restrictive to my every day life.
Every day I am terrified and each time I hear a crack or a snap I start sweating and my heart races etc etc.....
This is a daily thing and I can't concentrate on anything else. I can't enjoy myself because I am constantly thinking about my teeth and can't study anything because I can't concentrate. I can't enjoy conversation and I hate being in public.
My mind is always on my teeth and the feeling of grinding them.
Maybe its some sort of post traumatic stress disorder but the weird habits make no sense and maybe are the result of some other psychological disorder.
I am absolutely desperate, I can't live like this much longer and my surgeon told me that it's only going to get worse.....
I am in tears as I write and my hands are shaking. I just want to live a normal life. I'm only 23 yrs old. I used to be so easygoing and bubbly. Now I'm just badly depressed.
Sorry for the long rant, just needed somebody to listen.
Thanks everyone
It's a long story, almost ridiculous...
One year ago (almost to the day) I had an accident whereby I fell on the top of my head from a height. My head healed up quickly but unfortunately I had broken my upper front left tooth. I had broken about 3/4 of it off, so what remained was about half of the back section, which was totally open to expose all the pulp and nerve. Major trauma!!!!! I cried for weeks.
Went to A&E that night/early morning to get some initial work done. My local hospital couldn't do it so they sent me to another London one. Their dental section wasn't open for another seven hours (they opened at eight in the morning) and I knew I couldn't wait as I was in absolute agony so I went to another London hospital across town. They did an emergency root canal and put some stuff over the top of it that looked a bit like white blu-tack. I was still concussed and everything happening seemed a bit surreal.
That held for about four hours and fell out that afternoon. It was the weekend so I waited until Monday to make an emergency dental appointment. The dentist I had was new and seemed relatively experienced. He finished off the root canal and reshaped the remainder of the tooth, put some pins in it and added lots of resin to make it big enough to support a crown. He put a temporary crown on. I said that it wasn't comfortable as my lower teeth were banging into the back of it. He said that was normal and probably a result of swelling in my jaw from the accident. That temporary broke out that evening so I went back the following day and had another one put in. Exactly the same happened. This happened for about a month during which time I went through about 18 temporary crowns (all on the one tooth) and eventually managed to have a permanent one put in. I still felt like my lower teeth were banging into the back of this and I raised this again and again with my dentist who said that this was normal and would stop.
This porcelain crown lasted about six weeks and smashed spectacularly a few days before Christmas. I could have died. It was replaced with a porcelain/gold one. I asked my dentist again why my lower jaw was pushing into the back of my front tooth, making it bend forward from my gum and eventually causing it to snap in two. He said that I probably had some jaw disorder and would give me a soft mouthguard to reduce the damage it would cause my teeth.
I had to wear the mouthguard 24/7 (which was very unattractive and embarrassing) to stop my new tooth from smashing and from wearing down the lower teeth that were impacting upon the upper. However, after a while I noticed that I had bitten my way through this guard and was continuing to grind my teeth (I never had done before). I was given a couple more but the same happened and I was just tearing them to shreds at the point where my lower front tooth contacted my upper. It looked like I was trying to push my front teeth forward or my lower teeth backward, maybe that it what my subconscious was trying to do.
After a few weeks I noticed that when I took the mouthguard out, my teeth, including my molars, didn't fit together correctly. They made a horrible cracking noise if I tried to put them together when I spoke or ate, and generally felt like there were loads of sharp angles and pointy bits in my mouth that shouldn't have been there.
I was given a hard acrylic plate to wear on my lower jaw to help this. It was agony (because I later was told it hadn't been made correctly) and made the situation a lot worse by breaking other teeth that it was in contact with. There was constant pressure on my upper teeth from it. I couldn't speak or eat.
I went to another dentist who tried something else. He gave me a hard bite plate to wear on my upper jaw with the idea that my upper molars would erupt downwards, meet the lower ones, and hence my front teeth wouldn't clash. I presume this was some sort of guesswork as this a) broke my teeth and the restorations further when I bit down on it and b) when I removed it my teeth wouldn't fit together even more.
He asked a friend who worked at a denture lab to put some extra acrylic on it behind my front teeth that covered all the way down the back of my front teeth. It was extremely awkward and I was always breaking it, spitting out bits of acrylic and bits of tooth. It made my jaw so much worse as my lower jaw would skate around uncontrollably and not sit in one place. So much so that one day when I was talking my lower jaw skated randomly around, caught my upper front tooth and broke the crown at the bottom, SNAP!!
So because my teeth wouldn't fit together any more he recommended a further plastic mouthguard which was yellow and very embarrassing. Again, this made my occlusion a lot worse.
So the situation got worse and worse and worse. Eventually I came across a prosthodontist who told me that none of the general dentists I had seen were qualified to deal with my situation and that they had made it a lot worse. Makes me sick considering this took a year, I am in pain every day and it cost me in the region of £12,000.
So my prosthodontist supplied me with what he calls an "aspen" plate on my lower jaw. It's ok and I can eat and talk most of the time but it breaks a lot and I still find that it puts pressure on my teeth and bends them out of place. I know it's better that the plate breaks rather than my teeth but I still find it traumatic.
The problem is that bits of it snap off every few days and eventually it will disintegrate entirely. I have just moved to Barbados and can't find anyone who is able to make another, which means me flying back to England next time I hear a SNAP!!! I can't function without it so it will have to be an emergency flight that day.
The situation at the moment is that my teeth are extremely uncomfortable. I can't lie on my side because the way they touch breaks them (I am extremely anxious about it all when they click and grind together out of my control and probably grind them as well now). My lower teeth still smack the back of my upper front teeth, which still breaks the restorations every few weeks. I am in pain every single day. I constantly hold my teeth with my hands when out with friends to try and keep them in a comfortable position. I also try to push my chin backwards to stop my front teeth clashing so much, so people think I'm a bit weird.
I have also developed a mental disorder with it. I seem to deliberately try and "test" the reconstructed areas. Every time I have a glass or a knife I try and bite on it to see what will happen to my front teeth. Obviously I don't want them to break and this is just some weird nonsensical impulse whenever I have something hard, like keys for instance, in my hand. I have to bite it. So to try and stop it I use straws with my drinks, and don't use metal cutlery. Obviously this is all very restrictive to my every day life.
Every day I am terrified and each time I hear a crack or a snap I start sweating and my heart races etc etc.....
This is a daily thing and I can't concentrate on anything else. I can't enjoy myself because I am constantly thinking about my teeth and can't study anything because I can't concentrate. I can't enjoy conversation and I hate being in public.
My mind is always on my teeth and the feeling of grinding them. Maybe its some sort of post traumatic stress disorder but the weird habits make no sense and maybe are the result of some other psychological disorder.
I am absolutely desperate, I can't live like this much longer and my surgeon told me that it's only going to get worse.....
I am in tears as I write and my hands are shaking. I just want to live a normal life.
I'm only 23 yrs old. I used to be so easygoing and bubbly. Now I'm just badly depressed. Sorry for the long rant, just needed somebody to listen.
Thanks everyone
- anyway, 
and don't mention the weather ;D (it's miserable here!)
Very bizarre and I would love to chat to anyone who has experienced this problem. We can be in it together!! 
. The NTI is a sort of day-/nightguard (there are different versions available) which is supposed to make your jaw more relaxed. It can work extremely well with a few different types of TMJ problems, from what I've read and heard. Their website for professionals is 
.