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Temporomandibular Dysfunction: Teeth and Bite No Longer Align?

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,820
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction / disorder (TJD) relates to inflammation of the temporomandibular joint, the joint next to your ears which connects the jaw bone (mandible) to the skull.

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction is known to be more prevalent among chronic fatigue syndrome patients (TJD is a co-morbid condition with CFS). Temporomandibular joint dysfunction can have many symptoms, from tension headaches to tinnitus, and from jaw pain to shoulder/back pain.

The TJD symptom I am interested in is misaligned bite (malocclusion), which is where the upper and lower teeth no longer align properly together when closing the mouth and biting.

I started to experience this misaligned bite / malocclusion symptom over the last 5 years, since getting CFS.

I appear to have the beginnings of very mild class 3 malocclusion (prognathism), which occurs when the lower jaw protrudes forward a little.

This mild prognathism means when I close my mouth and bite, my lower incisor teeth now grind into the backs of my upper incisor teeth, wearing down the enamel on the backs of my upper incisors down.

I assume this is caused either by my lower jaw bone itself growing slightly larger, or by problems in my temporomandibular joint such that it pushes my jaw bone forward.

Has anyone else experienced this change in tooth alignment since acquiring chronic fatigue syndrome?
 

hixxy

Senior Member
Messages
1,229
Location
Australia
Very much so. I have a very large over bite now. All my teeth have also been ground away to the point where I have a large gap between top and bottom teeth. I tried to support this with a bite guard on front teeth and found myself hurting my front teeth by putting all the weight on them. Then I tried a plate which I proceeded to crack 4 times before I gave up. This was a year ago. My teeth have all been moved and gums deteriorated further since then because of my grinding!