what happens if you dont fix your TMJ?!

TMJ always gets worse over time, never gets better, and never goes away. Whether its bad to let it go depends on your genes. Some people can withstand the trauma and stress the TMJ undergoes and live perfectly normal lives with minimal or no discomfort while others will have a ton of problems ranging from locked out jaws to severe pain that is so devastating that they contemplate suicide. As you can see the range of symptoms is extremely wide.

The most common scenario seen is a patient with clicking and popping of the jaws (called reciprocal clicking) with little or no pain. This will then progress to intermittent locking as the patient gets older (mid to late 30's) where the jaw will feel like it gets "stuck" momentarily while opening until the articular disk pops back into place. This will eventually progress to a closed lock without reduction, which means the jaw will not be able to open more than 3 fingers wide and the articular disk will not go back into joint. This stage is extremely difficult to treat. Since TMJ is the first step to osteoarthritis if the jaw joint, there may be breakdown of the joint over time. Again this will depend on genetic makeup and how well your body handles trauma to the body. While all this is happening, the muscles that open and close the jaw may develop trigger points and refer pain to the head and neck. This is called musculoskeletal disorders and headaches are the most common symptom, especially in females. Many dentists do not know how to treat TMJ and most physicians do niot know much about TMJ so that is probably why you were never told about it. A dentist who is knowledgeable about TMJ will know the right questions to ask during the patient's comprehensive oral dental exam, otherwise many cases go undiagnosed. Patients do not know what is normal and what is not with their oral health and it is up to the dentist to ask the right questions to determine if a patient is suffering from a certain condition or not.

DDS; treated TMJ since 1984

It will keep getting worse. If you don't go to the doctor and get it sorted out asap, you can end up with bad head aches and more. If you let it go long enough you may have to have your jaw wired shut until it is healed.

Mine got better.