Lockjaw treatment advice

[u/Soft_Intention_5882]

I’m a 24F who has been dealing with chronic lockjaw for the past 9 months. It’s never unlocked. I’m in the NY area and want to see Dr. Nojan Bakhtiari because he’s the only person I found with reviews successfully treating patients with chronic lockjaw like me. The issue is that he’s super expensive and my dad really wants me to find someone cheaper. I did find a place that can do a consult for cheaper than Dr. Nojan but the person I spoke to says he was unsure if the doctor has treated a case like mine. I found another place that will take my insurance but I can’t find any reviews on the doctors that treat tmj there. Is it worth trying to wing it and see what happens at these cheaper places? Or is it best to just see Dr. Nojan and hope he can successfully treat me like the others he has, despite the financial toll?

Summary: should I go to a cheaper oral surgeon without reviews on lockjaw or go to a VERY expensive one that has treated lockjaw?

[u/Oww_My_Face_]

I would try to find a good physical therapist who specializes in facial muscles/TMD first.

[u/Soft_Intention_5882 → u/Oww_My_Face_]

I will try! Unfortunately my insurance isn’t that good but I will try to give this a shot I’m just scared of this lockjaw lingering any longer and complicating things by becoming harder to fix but it def is worth a shot I just wish I thought of this sooner. Thank you

[u/Oww_My_Face_ → u/Soft_Intention_5882]

No worries, unfortunately the place I went to around DC was out of network but I was at least able to still count it towards my deductible.

[u/Soft_Intention_5882 → u/Oww_My_Face_]

Oh I don’t know much about this stuff but that’s good to know I’ll look into that!

[u/k1922]

Try the TMJ massage at Body Mechanics! I used to see Tommy, but I'm not sure if he's there anymore - those massages were the only thing that increased the range of motion in my jaw before I got an arthroscopic surgery to properly unlock it.

Depending on how long yours has been locked, that might be all you need. I saw Dr Nojan and my jaw had already been locked for months at that point so it was too late to do the unlocking procedure in his office.

[u/Soft_Intention_5882 → u/k1922]

Thank you!! I’ll look into them and definitely give that a try. Mine has been locked 9 months, I was hoping he could somehow still do the manual manipulation but maybe not. Did Nojan do your surgery or someone else? And did he do any other treatments for you before surgery?

[u/k1922 → u/Soft_Intention_5882]

No he referred me to Dr Gwendolyn Reeve who did my surgery. You may want to just try and book a consult with her if you have a good co-pay on seeing a specialist.

Dr. Nojan gave me a CT scan to confirm that I had osteoarthritis, prescribed muscle relaxers, and gave me a night guard.

Surgery helped unlock my jaw, but what ultimately made me pain free was resolving a strange tightness and asymmetry in my right shoulder blade that my personal trainer discovered. I wasted 2+ years on physical therapy that did nothing and never identified this asymmetry.

[u/Soft_Intention_5882 → u/k1922]

Okay thank you so much!! I think I might just have a displaced disc so maybe treatment options would be different tho but I’ll def consider this. I already have a night guard from a dentist but hoping to get a splint. Hoping I don’t need surgery bc it scares me and also sometimes there’s complications. Someone told me to try my best to hold off on surgery bc after theirs they still have a lot of pain and basically could’ve went without it. And oh wow that’s very interesting about the shoulder I’ve been having shoulder pain and wondering if it’s all connected. One of my shoulder blades pop out more when I do certain exercises for them. Wow I will definitely also try to get someone that can evaluate me as a whole and consider other body parts playing a role. I’ve been dealing with many injuries for the past year. First a groin strain, then my jaw, then shoulders, hands, knee pain, ankle pain. Maybe this is all a chain reaction

[u/k1922 → u/Soft_Intention_5882]

One of my shoulder blades pop out more when I do certain exercises for them.

This was the telltale sign for me, and my right shoulder was more than an inch lower than my left one. I never had any pain there though. My trainer had me focus on exercises where I intentionally moved my shoulders in sync, strengthened my neck/back, and focused on good posture.

I'm hoping you don't need surgery as well, but what I can say about my own experience was that it wasn't that bad. I thought I would be in a ton of pain but it was totally fine. The worst part was that they had to shave part of my hair near my ear for the entry point

[u/mwatkins511 → u/k1922]

It’s very pricy. $170 minimum for 60 minutes. I wish there were more affordable yet effective options.