before having surgery to remove the tumor in my sinuses, which entailed removing 1/2 of the upper palate and almost 1/2 of the upper jaw, i had tmj. have had it for years with the normal clicking, soreness when eating anything real chewy etc ...

well, since having the surgery i have noted a lot of problems with my jaw. first thing was i could not open my mouth as wide as before and when i did open it, it would open more on the side that did not have surgery which caused a lopsided opening. i also noted when i was able to start eating more that my cheeks and jaw would get real sore tired feeling from it and then i noted my ear started feeling stuffed and my hearing was impaired on that side.

well today i finally found info online that described exactly what i have been experiencing and it says that TMJ causes all of these things and they worsen after surgery - now it kinda makes sense if you do surgery on an area that already has problems (esp when you have TMJ and arthritis there anyway) it makes sense that it will develop problems as it goes ... so now i am going to try some therapy methods for tmj and see if that will help the problem

i am just wondering if anyone else has had this happen?

Rita....Did your dr. tell you to work on opening your jaw after your surgery? As you know, I had a similar surgery, though not quite as extensive by a tooth or two...but my surgery did remove all of the maxilla to the rear and to the front including the canine tooth, leaving all four incisors. It also removed about 1/3 of my hard palate. So.....everything back in that rear corner has been insulted and/or injured.

I still exercise my jaw many times a day by opening as wide as possible, and sometimes assisting by hand. I can open nearly three fingers' worth now, but if I had not exercised, I might have been permanently scarred down to a very small opening. Before you presume that this is caused by your previous TMJ, please check with your surgeon and ask for specific exercise methods for this problem. You might need a Therabite. There are lots of threads on the forum about opening issues.

ALSO...after my surgery, my ear was stopped up (and was numb on the outside....bothersome!...has resolved, thankfully.) This is because, again, nerves have been insulted/damaged way back there near the eustachean tube, and it doesn't work properly then. I was told that mine might come back or might not, in which case they would install PE tubes. I took OTC Sudafed for several months, and it gradually opened up, and now my ear functions normally.

But yes, those problems are probably related to your surgery and not necessarily to your previous TMJ....not helped by it, of course, but maybe not caused by it....makes more sense that it was caused by your surgery.

XO--C

yeah i do exercises for jaw opening - they have been helpfulo with suggestions for that and warned me (not surgeon but prosthesis guy)

when your ear stopped up was this directly after surgery? because mine was fine from AUG to OCT then it started it when I started eating more foods which required chewing ... this is why i figure tmj not surgery but maybe that is incorrect if yours took a while to act up too? in my cheek i can tell there is some nerve damage because it feels a little numb ... not bad but a weird feel to it which you can tell is nerves not awake right but the ear i am not so sure ...

thanks

My ear was problematic from the beginning, but I can see how increased chewing could set up some inflammation of the nerve that make everything work right....maybe some anti-inflammatory med. in addition to Sudafed might work....says Dr. Colleen! It's just a thought and one that shouldn't hurt anything....Ibuprofen is great, as is Aleve....take them on a regular basis if you want to see results

And with your previous tmj, there's no telling what's going on.

My inner cheek is a little numb also.....am used to it....

XO

yeah i am thinking inflammation is definitely a factor whatever it is because i am on prednisone and when i had to go up on it a bit i noted my ear felt better ... and prednisone is like a top line anti inflammatory )which is why i take it for rheumatoid arthritis( ... i tried ibuprofen and benedryl ... didn't notice a diff but didn't take it long (one or two nights) so i will try sudafed and some ibu and take it for 2 weeks to try it ... see if it helps.

i don't like feelin deaf LOL it is better than it was i can now hear a little out of it and before i could not at ALL and it made it hard to hear people talk - now i can hear enough out of it that i can hear talkin good so it is bearable but just dont like the feeling / sound of it constantly ... want it gone (pout) LOL