TMJ Crepitus/cracking gone after 4 years
Hello everyone, I wanted to share my TMJ story.
I’m a 25-year-old male, and my TMJ issues started after a dentist appointment in 2022, when I had a cavity filled. Later that day, when I got home and ate something, I heard a loud cracking sound in my left TMJ. Since that moment, I’ve been experiencing crepitus/ Crackling sound in both joints.
Because I have a pretty obsessive personality and struggle with severe OCD, I became completely fixated on the noise. For the next 4 years, I kept “testing” my jaw by opening my mouth very wide and moving it around constantly, sometimes every few minutes, just to check if the noise was still there.
It had a huge psychological impact on me. I became really depressed and convinced myself it was arthritis.
Recently, I noticed that when I stopped testing it so much, it seemed to improve. So I decided to stop completely. After about a week, the noise went away.
At this point, I’m starting to think my problem may have been more related to irritation from constantly checking it than to actual structural damage.
I wanted to share this in case anyone else is going through something similar.