Fortunately, with treatment, many TMJ sufferers can come to live normal, fulfilling lives again.
Appearance and Self Image Changes
TMJ can dramatically change the appearance of your face. TMJ can lead to asymmetrical appearance, which can be conspicuous and can make many people with TMJ self conscious. This can be related to overdevelopment of muscles, or related to damage to teeth and jaw joints.
Tooth damage can also significantly impact your smile. People with TMJ often experience badly worn or broken teeth, which can make smiling with confidence nearly impossible.
TMJ can also dramatically impact a person’s weight. Because jaw pain makes it hard to eat many nutritious raw foods, people with TMJ often lean heavily on preprocessed foods that are high in sugar and fat, leading to significant weight gain. That’s assuming that they do actually eat — many people with TMJ experience the opposite problem — they don’t eat enough and dramatically lose weight. Both of these changes can dramatically impact someone’s appearance and make it hard for them to feel like themselves.
Difficulty Socializing
As if appearance changes weren’t enough to keep people with TMJ from getting out and enjoying company, many people with TMJ experience more problems that make it hard to enjoy an active social life.
We already talked about the difficulty eating. So many social events revolve around eating and drinking, making these occasions difficulty for people with TMJ. With difficulty eating that extends even to a tendency to lose food out of their mouth, people with TMJ may just avoid any occasion that involves a meal.
But even without eating (or drinking) it’s hard for people with TMJ to socialize because it’s hard for them to talk. An inability to properly form words and to make yourself heard and understood over noises in a bar or restaurant can make any social event into a series of frustrations.
Family relations can become strained due to the disruptive TMJ symptoms.
Life Plans Dashed
With TMJ, all your plans can be thrown into doubt. The career you enjoy may have to be put on hold because your illness causes you to lose too much work. Vacations, retirements, and house improvements have to be put off because they’re no longer in the budget.
Travel can become nearly impossible, and the pressure changes in an airplane can cause excruciating face and jaw pain. Even the weather can lead to painful TMJ flare-ups.
In short, it’s hard for people with TMJ to make and maintain plans.
Get Your Life Back
If TMJ is hampering your ability to enjoy your life, then it’s time to seek treatment. To learn how TMJ treatment in Savannah can help you, please call (912) 234-8282 today for an appointment with a TMJ dentist at Beyond Exceptional Dentistry.
