Ok here is another weird question. !6 weeks out now feweling pretty chipper. I am eating all sorts of food, still not great taste buds, they will come back. I ate a hot dog the other day, real health food. I have nooticed that my jaw doen not open as wide as it use to. I noticed it at the dentist too. Have any of you experienced the same and do you know a good jaw exercise?
When I ate the hot dog I had to eat it like a rat, little nibbles from the side. Call me rat man!
Thanks, Steve
LOL Ratman! Jaw opening is a definate problem - MO called it Trismus. At the onset of treatment my MO told me to not let the opening get smaller that the width of two fingers put in sideways - get the visual. Anyway, he gave me a wad of tongue depressers and said to put them in my mouth everyday as exercise. I did - sort of. Anyway I was able to keep it at "two fingers" and once out of treatment by adding more tongue depressers, I got it back to 3 fingers wide open. Woo-hoo I can get a hamburger in it now. So, get some popsicle sticks/tongue drepressers and just keep adding a few every time you can and stretch it open. I did this as many times a day as I thought of it.
LOL , I wonder how good that dog tasted. No my mouth doesn't open near as wide as it did. But I would love to be able to eat a hotdog with onions and mustard one day.LOL I just tried the fingers to see how many will fit. Not even 2 and I am sure glad my vertical blinds are closed. Good luck and the best to you.
There is a piece of equipment called a Therabite which is supposed to help with trismus. Do a search here and on the main page for more info.
Steve,
That is trismus and will only get worse if not treated. You need to do jaw exercises to keep it from getting worse. Some people use tongue depressers, some get a therabite. I even had PT by a someone who specilaizes in trismus which involved intra and extra oral massage. Yawning can also help. Bring this to the attention of your doctors and they should be able to help you.
Take care,
Eileen
I have done jaw stretching exercises every day since I started treatment, over 3 years ago. I do 40 full repetitions, opening my jaw as wide as possible for each repetition.
I have no idea if this has helped, but I can open my jaw 4 fingers wide.
Best wishes,
Chris
thanks everyone. I will do some exercises to open my mouth up. So many of these litle things to deal with! I do know that I will get better and one of these days take a BIG bite out of a hot dog, hamberger or ???, no more Ratman!
Steve
Steve:
3 years out and it's still a daily struggle at times. There are still days I take a page from your "Ratman" book. HAHA, that was good. At least we can still Gnaw on it..
Stay positive, keep exercising, and stay after it. Most importantly Keep Smilin', it qualifies as exercises!!
Best Regards,
Steve F.
I am a little confused. I was doing jaw exercises everyday then when I went to my ENT claiming of pain he told me not to do that because it will make my jaw worst. So I stopped and yes the pain has decreased. I also have the 2 fingers but have 3 fingers with my teeth out. LOL Boy do I miss biting into a hot dog so now I just cut it up in little bites but it's just not the same. I think I may want to question my ENT a little.
Post radiation, my husband was told to do exercises to stretch his mouth opening. He was doing them regularly but since his jaw problems and recent jaw reconstruction, he was advised to NOT do them. The other day the Oral/Max said that the inside of his mouth is so tight that he probably won't get his mouth open any more than 2 fingers. Months from now when the jaw is completely healed, he wants to continue the stretching just to keep his mouth mobile.