Good morning,
Sorry this is long, it’s my whole story…
I have been trolling for a few weeks now but would love to hear from people who have similar stories. I want to note that I always had ear problems as a kid, with tubes in both ears and hearing loss on right side. I can only hear out of left ear.
About 2 years ago (October 2018), I had two crowns fall off and started to notice dizziness when engaging in conversations or quick movement. I had slight cases of vertigo for about 14 years now, but mostly were under control with the epley maneuver. However, this time was different. The dentist put in a post on both teeth and replaced the crown but told me that I would probably need to get an implant. The following month, I saw the ENT because my ear felt full and there was pain behind it and I felt that I had something going on with my sinus. I had a sinus scan that showed they were fine and my ENT said my ear was fine. He had me take allergy medicine in both morning and night saying it would help clear up. I saw chiropractor at this time and was getting weekly massages with no relief.
In January, I saw my primary doctor. I started having a lot of Reynard’s symptoms, which would cause blood flow to be limited and my fingers would turn purple and complained about a bump on the back of my neck which she told me was muscle that might have been pulled. She said nothing can be done for Reynard’s, but the bump almost felt like a swollen lymph to me, but my doctor sent me to physical therapy for the dizziness, which I did for 8 weeks with no difference. (I am thinking at this point that blood flow has to be blocked somewhere.
At physical therapy, they felt it was more positional (and somewhat visual). At this time, I saw my eye doctor because my eyes were very dry and left eye seemed to bother me. When driving, I would also get dizzy. Headaches started and were more up the back of my head. My scalp would hurt when brushing my hair and bring on the headaches.
My doctor sent me to Neurologist and for CT scan and MRI (I think of head and neck). He told me it was more anxiety and stress (mom of 3 and teacher), so I took the pills recommended. I also had light sensitivity and had to wear a hat most of the time.
At this time I started acupuncture along with chiro and massages. I was getting a lot of pain in my left shoulder and would lay on a tennis ball to try to lease the tension. My chiropractor thought it was posture related and diagnosed me with text neck. So, I started doing exercises for that and was adjusting my posture at work. Still no relief.
In the mean time, I decided to start the process of getting implant, thinking it could be related to my mouth. The muscle relaxer helped from Neuro but the anxiety medicine had me tired. I continued to get vertigo, neck pain, and headaches. At this time, my jaw was really bothering me and I was told that I had TMJ and all my symptoms were related to TMJ. They made me a mouth piece and it didn’t help.
In March (2019) I was back at ENT and requested a tube in my ear b/c the pressure just felt like too much. He put the tube in but we took it right out b/c it felt the back windows were open in a car on the high way. It didn’t take any relief from the fullness in my ear. He still stuck to the fact that I have TMJ and that was causing all my issues.
In May 2019 I started the process of removing front tooth and getting implant, which they put in right away with titanium implant and let the bone heal around it with the implant in.
In October 2019 (a full year later of still being in pain), I switched to a new chiropractor who planted the seed that she thought my teeth could have something to do with it and recommend I see a holistic dentist. I put it off and continued with my treatment of front tooth implant, which was finished in December. I also started to get pain in my face, which I thought could be trigeminal neuroglia, saw a specialist but he thought it was more occipital because of the feeling of glasses around my ears and pain up the back. At this time, all the doctors were pointing to TMJ causing all my issues.
January 2020 I saw a TMJ specialist at Thomas Jefferson, who suggested that I don’t have TMJ but she feels that I may have infected bottom tooth, one that the cap fell off in October 2018. We removed the tooth, which was infected and treated it. I was still getting pain and saw another TMJ specialist to look at getting botox for headaches and he was still treating me with medicines to help with that however, I had to go through a process of them. I ended up on topamax,which caused me to pass out on my kitchen floor. I had such dry mouth that I went back to my ENT to look into possibly have a blockage and he put me on medicine for salivary gland stones blockage. I think that’s why I passed out, I was on too many medications at one time. Since then, I still have chronic dry mouth but I think always have.
In Feb. 2020 I went back to the advice of my chiro and saw holistic dentist at Meeting House dental, which did a 3D beam scan to show that I had cavitations, root canal teeth that could be causing harm and also Eagles syndrome, which I ignored at that time. I contacted an oral surgeon, Atlantic Oral Surgery in NJ about the cavitations and we planned on getting them done at some point.
In March 2020, I went back to ENT because I was having trouble swallowing and had some heartburn. He felt that it was acid reflect and gave me more pills for that. Then covid hit.
Symptoms continued, I was able to continue with my chiro and acupuncture for relief but it wasn’t enough. In June 2020 I finally got my bottom cavitations and tooth 9 extracted (it was listed as root canal tooth that could be infected). Then in Aug. I had top cavitations done. In Oct. I had dental implant removed thinking maybe I am having a reaction to the metal. At the end of the month, I saw ENT at Thomas Jefferson thinking maybe it was something inner ear. She mentioned Eagle’s syndrome and I see Dr. Cognetti. He confirmed that he thinks that I have Eagle’s syndrome and we are planning for surgery Dec. 4 but I am worried that it won’t be the answer and maybe it’s something else but I am tired of searching for answers. My vergito has gotten worse with head movements and now is affecting my life. I am still going to acupuncture and chrio weekly, which helps but doesn’t last long.
I know this is extremely long, but can anyone guide me if I am making right decision to have surgery?