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Nattie's avatar

fwiw I had TMJ for a while and my dentist gave me a thing to help it at night, but it turns out tons of nutrient deficiencies cause TMJ and (at least in that case) it’s less about the actual tooth alignment than the jaw just wanting to clench. Something to consider is whether you have better or worse TMJ days, because if so, it suggests something other than teeth alignment is at least a factor, even if tooth alignment is too.

Based on your saying that you also have a headache in the back of your skull and poor dreams, B6 (supplement P5P, not normal B6) and/or magnesium deficiencies stand out as the most likely. I solved my own TMJ entirely with nutrients and I was able to help a few others as well.

It might also interest you to know that restless leg syndrome and TMJ are tightly linked via nutrient deficiencies too, in case you ever experience that (especially twitching yourself awake).

Some other nutrient deficiencies linked to TMJ are vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamine, riboflavin (probably because it supports B6; its deficiency also causes do e headaches), niacin, folate, B12, zinc, and iron.

I’m curious if you’ve ever gotten a nutrient deficiency test like Spectracell or similar that actually analyzes intercellular levels of nutrients, because most tests analyze blood levels and are not especially useful since the body has lots of mechanisms for maintaining circulating levels of nutrients by simply pulling them out of cells.

Speaking from personal experience, doing unusual diets or taking supplements can easily deplete some nutrients, even and ESPECIALLY if you get good results from them; every effect that happens is the result of whatever you take or eat reacting with *something else.* We don’t have infinite supplies of everything, and often even when our bodies can make something, we can’t make it at the rate needed to keep up with whatever unusual thing we’re consuming. Then the things we can’t make, like minerals, are sometimes getting incorporated into new tissues/cells.

I actually developed TMJ when I was doing paleo back in 2012 and getting tons of health benefits from it. I just couldn’t get enough of the nutrients I needed from even a high nutrient diet like paleo to do everything my body wanted to do.

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Andrew's avatar

Let's look at the root cause. I wouldn't blame the TMJ on misaligned teeth, even if they are. I think the issue is the clenching, and that may have a cause as well.

I had TMJ when I was in the Marine Corps, and it was due to clenching my teeth at night. When I moved back into civilian life, I had far less stress, the clenching subsided, and my TMJ went away. When I currently have a particularly stressful day, I will wake up with a "tired" jaw and I know I was clenching my teeth in my sleep again. Fortunately, those stressful days are few and far between so the TMJ has never returned.

I know removing stress from ones life can be very difficult, but you seem like a guy who could really commit to it and see a noticeable difference. I guess that takes us a step further into the root cause rabbit hole as well--what is causing the stress?

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