ENT Referral
Q.
Dear Dr. Jolley, I am being referred to your office from my ENT doctor. I am having severe pain that I thought was coming from my ear, but my ENT doctor says that my ears are perfectly clear and that my pain is actually coming from my TMJ joint. I also suffer from severe Migraine-like headaches and I have some neck pain as well. I went to your web-site, which by the way, is very impressive and educational, and saw that not only is ear pain a frequent symptom of TMJ, but so is headache and chronic neck and shoulder pain. Do you think you can help me, I am at my wits end ! Sincerely, Linda
A.
Dear Linda, What you just described of having pain that you thought was ear pain and it actually being TMJ pain is very common. The TMJ joint is just in front of the ear canal, so very often TMJ pain is misinterpreted as ear pain. We get numerous referrals from ENT doctors. Other ear symptoms include, ringing in the ears, a stuffiness or fluid on the ear, vertigo (dizziness) and even loss of hearing.
Additionally, your headaches and chronic neck and shoulder pain may very well be related to the TMJ problem that you are having. The most common symptom of TMJ in 85 % of TMJ patients is chronic migraine headaches. But we won’t know this for certain until we do an inexpensive, noninvasive “screening appointment.”
The “screening appointment” will tell us if your symptoms are truly related to your TMJ or if your symptoms are related to something else. So before we embark on a TMJ treatment protocol, we make sure that your symptoms are related to your TMJ.
And to answer your question: Yes, I do believe we can help you. We have an extremely high success rate. Please call our office and set up an appointment and visit our web-site at http:// drjolley.com/ . I look forward to meeting you. Roy Jolley DDS; Distinguished Fellow AACP