Question(s): does anyone have TMJ syndrome? What the SHIT do you do for it? CAN you do anything for it? And does it make your teeth hurt?

This post brought to you by My Mouth Is A Nexus of Pain.

I have it (maybe -- various medical and dental people have had different opinions on what exactly I have), and I had a biteplate when I was a teenager, and that helped a lot. (I stopped using it after the third time I accidentally threw it out with my lunch garbage at school.)

Steph, a mouth guard, made by the dentist, can really help.

smonster, if you move closer, you totally can! Or visit someone in KC, or even NOLA.

On the camping front, to be fair, I haven't gone in a couple of years. You guys have heard about my girly parties and mixed gender cabin getaways in the Ozarks, though, which I frankly prefer, being all old and lazy now. They involve beautiful scenery, a lazy hike during the day, and a hot tub or L's sauna (and a metric fuckton of booze and good food) at night.

Plus...beds. And the cabin is a vaca house.

I have a biteguard from the drugstore, which my dentist recommended I try first, and if it doesn't help, then she can make me a more rigid one, I guess. When she first recommended it, I only had random tooth pain that multiple X-rays turned up no cause for, and she said it looked like I was grinding my teeth -- but at that time, I didn't have the awful constant jaw ache. Now I have the tooth pain (sometimes every single goddamn tooth hurts at the same time) AND this jaw ache that makes me want to stab my jaw.

I've used the drugstore biteguard for about a week, I think, and I can't really tell any improvement. I still want to stab my jaw.

Steph, I clench (though not grind) my teeth--I don't know when it started but a couple years ago one day I woke up almost unable to open my jaw! Shocked the hell out of me. I got a night guard from my dentist...but I swear, while it may protect my teeth, it makes me MORE likely to wake up in the morning with an aching jaw! So I haven't been using it, but at the same time I fear that means my teeth are all going to crack in half.

The mouth guard does take a few weeks to take effects; kind of like AD's.

However, one fitted to your mouth might work better, and my dentist gave me painkillers to help with the pain while my mouth was adjusting.

I also booked a massage really focusing on the neck, head and upper shoulders during that first week of wearing it, and that helped a lot. YMouthMV.

However, one fitted to your mouth might work better, and my dentist gave me painkillers to help with the pain while my mouth was adjusting.

The drugstore one is one that you can fit to your teeth; it's this weird soft plastic that's all flat, and you put it in boiling water to make it even softer, and then after it cools for a minute, you bite it to mold it to your teeth.

I'm taking ibuprofen, but it doesn't eliminate the pain; just dials it down. Maybe I'll get a massage. It would be bad for my health NOT to!

Emeline is perched on the back of the sofa, looking out the window, waiting for the twins from her class to arrive for a sleepover. To say she is excited is an understatement.

Barb, all the pictures are great; they made TCG and I want to go back to Seattle.

Barb, I love that first picture, but just a warning--I have a picture of an airplane wing and sky and water, which looks gorgeous on a computer (I've used it as background sometimes) but when printed out, the blue just doesn't seem as awesome and bright (and I tried it at a couple different companies). Just to warn you (I still think you should print it though!)