20 years of Debilitating Chronic TMJ Pain

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Chronic Bilateral TMJ pain

(TMJ - Temporomandibular joint Disorder)

This is a long story that has basically destroyed half of my life since this has been a 20 year long journey that still hasn't ended. This includes multiple injections, medications, therapy, rehabilitation, heat/electric stimulation, appliances and surgeries involving approx. 6-8 doctors, 6 of which were specialist in various fields relating to the main TMJ health issue.

Introduction: My name is Mike Corriero I'm a concept artist/illustrator who has been working freelance since 2003. I graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in May 2003. I've had to turn down a number of job opportunities both Full Time and Freelance due to multiple unforeseen health complications including my TMJ/Jaw and pain in both Hands as well as other issues I'm not too comfortable talking about.

Since late 2003: I started to have issues with my jaw and (my hands; which is a story for another time). I didn't think too much of the functional problems with my jaw at first. When I was at a friend's house for New Year's eve, I was very conscious of a repetitive grinding of what could only be described as bone against bone and tearing raw muscle. To this day there’s no reason myself nor the doctors could think of that caused this to become so severe.

November 2004: It was only a year or so after that where I was constantly "holding my jaw" and found it difficult to talk. I was experiencing clicking and grinding noises which eventually developed into a much more severe situation. I had to start manipulating my jaw with my hand to maneuver it around the TMJ joint because it was getting stuck.

I didn't exactly know what was happening but I had heart pounding moments and as a result - severe panic attacks.

That sensation was scary but at the time I didn't know what was truly going on and I had only seen a few "general doctors". The damage was on-going between bone/cartilage and muscle tearing, wearing down and destroying the TMJ joints/discs.

Mid 2006 - 2007: I ended up seeking out a "TMJ specialist" and I came across "Dr. Ira Klemons D.D.S., Ph.D. dental sleep clinic" in South Amboy, NJ. What he suggested made sense at the time and he was one of the closest TMJ specialist. I wish I had looked further into his experience and history and patient treatment.

I had no knowledge of TMJ and I put my trust in this man (only to find out a few months ago this past year Nov. 2023 that he lost his license around 2016 due to malpractice) and he was friends with Dr. Hoffman the TMJ surgeon he eventually suggested I go see.

It turns out Dr. Klemons was overcharging insurance companies and patients by making bite plates more expensive. Making them more intricate, including metal and unnecessary modifications. It was 4 months into my 6 month treatment which involved Injections into the face, electric stimulation, bite plates/modifying these night guards and heat pads that he suggested I see a surgeon - Dr. Hoffman D.D.S., F.A.C.S. in Staten Island.

November 2009: After a period of time and pain worsening from week to week and each month that I eventually saved up enough money and had gone to see Dr. Hoffman for a consultation. I had MRI/CT scans and X-rays done and both joints were not in place. Surgery was the last thing I wanted but the pain and dysfunctional movement of my jaw was unbearable.

Dr. Hoffman told me during the surgery he had seen A Lot of scar tissue - so much so that he couldn't pull the left joint back in place. Post-Op I was going through physical therapy, electric stimulation, heat pads and utilizing a device to slowly open my jaw from a few millimeters back to a more manageable state. This was a process of around 3+ months. I was on a liquid diet for about 2-3 months and I lost quite a bit of weight. I felt better to a degree - though this only lasted a mere 3 months before pain started to slowly creep back in. Likely due to the left joint not back in place and all of the scar tissue seen during surgery.

It wasn't even 6 months before I found myself right back to where I was Pre-Op. I had lost about 30 lbs during that time and I couldn't sleep because I'd end up waking up while subconsciously opening my jaw past the point that was comfortable - causing an insane shocking pain that felt like my jaw was ripping apart.

Surgery was my last resort because having them cut into my face and such a pivotal area as the TMJ joint really worried me. The amount of time focused on finding a doctor I felt comfortable with while “trying to get work done” and dealing with all of this discomfort made Freelancing all the more difficult.

2010-2013: This is where I started to feel like giving up. I let so much time pass because I was broke, I was tired and felt like no one knew what they were doing. I was tired of being let down and dropping another large sum of money on false hopes. It was frustrating, tiresome and worst of all... killing what little money I had due to the inability to work full-time. This again was due to my inability to talk properly and for long periods of time as well as my hand pains. To look at me you wouldn’t know that inside my face/head there was a nightmare taking place.

Approx. 2013-2015: At this point I started to see Dr. Streko who was one of the nicest doctors I had seen who truly cared and who unfortunately passed away (2021).

Dr. Thomas C. Streko, D.M.D - was an Orthodontist who also treated issues with TMJ. He provided bite plates/alterations and tensing/heat therapy but it was more involved and more state of the art compared to what the other doctors offered.

I hit a point where I couldn't afford to keep seeing Dr. Streko - so I had gone many months just dealing with how things were. Then my joints and the muscles in my face reached a limit where I had no choice but to go back to him regardless of money. I couldn't open my mouth, I couldn’t chew and I had to use an iPad to type/talk to him.

Dr. Streko was able to bring me back from this nightmare to a more functional state but there were still internal disc problems with the joints. Most of the time during a lot of these visits, my mother had to accompany me in order to talk on my behalf. My mom has been with me on practically every consult with every doctor since the beginning - just to help talk when I couldn’t.

April-Oct. 2016: My PCP had mentioned Dr. Harold D'Anunciacao - a Physical Therapist in Morristown, NJ. He was primarily a physical therapist but luckily he knew a lot about TMJ. Harold would spend 60-90 min. with me once a week - working on posture, an ergonomic workspace setup, stretches for my neck, my jaw and back - since everything is interconnected. After approx. 16 sessions and an hour long one way ride to Morristown, Harold basically mentioned he did as much as he could. So this was yet another dead-end. More time, money, sadness and frustration…

Approx. 2018: There was a Doctor in Boston who treated TMJ problems. I took a 4 hour drive there with my parents only to be charged a consultation fee that was more than they quoted over the phone. We were set up to stay at a hotel but there were also issues with the overnight fee and eventually we ended up driving back the same day with nothing accomplished. He mentioned if I had a recent MRI done that he would look it over and get back to me but this of course went nowhere. This left me frustrated as usual and in a state of feeling like “why continue”…?

2017-2022: I hit yet another standstill where I didn't know what else to do and I was just trying to deal with the pain in anyway I could. Eventually recognizing nothing I was doing was helping and things progressively became worse and worse. Things got to the point where for 6 months I was in a daze. What little work I was getting done had to be put on hold. My brain was in a fog, the only thing on my mind was the pain and I could barely sit in front of the computer to read e-mails. I finally sought out yet another doctor, the current doctor I'm seeing.

2023-Current Day: My PCP mentioned a number of doctors from pain management to acupuncture, facial pain, TMJ specialist etc. I had seen approx. 5 doctors until coming across Dr. Shahid Aziz, MD - an oral & maxillofacial surgery specialist in Edison, NJ. I felt very comfortable with Dr. Aziz and his fellow. They’re both extremely nice, easy to talk to and knowledgeable in their area of expertise.

They first mentioned a Bilateral Arthroscopic Surgery, going in to clean/flush out the joints and inject cushioning agents - because after an MRI and CT scan as well as X-rays showed that my joints were off placement yet again. It was decided to put that off before exploring another option.

The disc of the joints were worn down to practically nothing which is why I'm feeling such intense pain. I hit points during 6 months where my mind was in a fog, I couldn’t focus, couldn't think, I felt like time was passing in ways I couldn’t understand.

I was switched to some different medications and I was referred by Dr. Aziz to a pain management clinic in Newark, NJ. This was a teaching clinic as part of Rutgers and I had spoken to both Dr. Stanley Markman and the head of the department Dr. Gary M. Heir. I spent months back and forth with this clinic - getting nowhere and they talked about a bite plate. I was tired of hearing about bite plates. I had shown Dr. Heir about 8 different types I had worn over the years.

I asked about pain medication and they didn't want to go down that route, so nothing more than 600mg of Ibuprofen was mentioned - along with other medications I was already taking. To me this was like putting a bandaid on a broken bone.

I wasn't too enthusiastic about the mention of yet another bite plate/night guard and after 3-4 months I decided to go through with the Arthroscopic Surgery Dr. Aziz mentioned because I was sick to my stomach from the various pains occurring over those 4 months.

I was having muscle spasms, tightness, stretching pain, twinging, pain in the temples, the back of my head, the curve of my jaw, the back and sides of my neck... I was getting nauseous and I couldn't think straight. I was having such severe anxiety that one night I literally thought "this is it..." I thought I was going to die and I was scared. I couldn’t read or look at a phone and try to help my mom with something simple. My brain was foggy, my mental state was destroyed and all I had left were tears of uncertainty.

Dec. 26th 2023 I went through my most recent surgery:

After finally getting the surgery done, it seemed at the 2 week follow up that nothing had changed and that the surgery was a failure. I saw Dr. Aziz and he didn't know what to say - he suggested "Pain Management" which would simply involve pain medication. It took about an extra week and I started to feel some relief. Nothing is perfect but it allowed me to talk a bit easier (which is how I recorded the video for this GoFundMe) and chew foods I hadn't touched in over 6-8 months.

The only issue with where I'm at now is the question of "how long will this last"? It could be a few months, 6 months or a year. If it lasts 6 months I'd have to have this done twice a year and still take muscle relaxants and pain medication. So my journey still continues and this is where I'm looking for financial help. The photos you see are the less invasive surgery, the surgery I had in Nov. 2009 felt like something I never wanted to go through ever again in my life.

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I've dropped so much money on Doctors, Medication, Procedures, Injections, Therapy, Rehab and Surgery over 20 years that I haven't been living a real life. I've stopped going to family gatherings, not wanting to spend holidays with my brothers, nieces and nephews. Just this year I went 6 months unable to work, unable to see my family members. I've had artists and friends offer to have me come to their homes to simply "get away from it all" and relax.

I've neglected going to conventions, drawing sessions or meeting others because of the pain, inability to talk and panic attacks. This has truly destroyed more than half of my life.

I couldn't accept full time jobs because of my Jaw (not being able to hold a conversation longer than 5-10 min.) without severe pain, tightness, spasms, tearing sounds and what sounded like breaking a large bone in half. In addition, I had/have health issues with my hands related to Carpal Tunnel/Tenosynovitis and likely Reynaud’s (current day 2024 - I'll be getting tested for Lupus and Reynaud's) because of poor circulation in my hands, numbing sensations, hands turning purple/white as well as small painful bumps popping up on various joints in my hands.)

After 20 years of this hell, I’m finally asking for help. I’m open to advice, doctors, treatment but I truly need financial support. After 20+ years this is why the goal is as large as it is…

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Mike Corriero -