Yes Temporomandibular disorders are included in the group of Central Sensitivity disorders.

Hi Lindsay, please contact me. I have been dealing with health issues since 2019 and what you say about dissassociatiom, tmj, and fatigue/inflammation seems extremely relevant to me. My symptoms seem caused/exacerbated to the extreme by pornography and computer games. I have a long history of dissasociation as do my parents. I would like to discuss this with you as nobody else believes or understands what I have noticed concerning the connection between my physical and psychological symptoms. My email is [email protected]. I tried to message you on hn but wasn't able to. Thanks.

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.

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.