Hacker News Reader

Comment by spondylosaurus | Hacker News Reader

Also curious about this. I'd be shocked if TMJ/TMD was more than incidentally psychological. Mine is definitely a mix of genetics (thanks Dad!) and inflammatory. When I started Humira for unrelated reasons, the painful aspects cleared right up... although as I type this comment I just realized the recent resurgence in pain might have to do with how Humira's been less effective for me lately :P

EDIT: Ah, just saw the other reply. Strange.

View on HN

Yes so - I have noticed my patients will often get surprising benefit from some random medication, dietary change, etc. But usually, unless they deal with the underlying emotional dynamic of avoidance/push-through, etc, the improvement will not be resilient. Ie the symptoms return after a while...

What of the fact that my father and I both get painless clicking when we open our jaws too wide? Unless I'm having an arthritis flare, it doesn't hurt at all, but every dentist I've ever seen has pointed it out with curiosity. That certainly seems like a mechanical issue.

My immediate reaction here is that casting (my) TMJ pain as a matter of emotional avoidance feels a tad dismissive, tbh. Particularly when the pain comes in tandem with flare-ups of other systemic inflammatory issues... unless ankylosing spondylitis is an emotional problem as well :)

Could it be that some TMJ pain has one cause and some TMJ pain has a different cause?

Probably, sure. Which if anything is all the more reason I think it's unhelpful to jump right to "my guess it's an emotional regulation problem" before you've ruled out physical causes like chronic enthesitis.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com