TMJ Treatment London: Treat the Underlying Cause of TMJ Dysfunction

I had suffered (and I mean suffered!!) with ear ache that was so bad at times the pain literally took my breath away. Agony (and I really don't say that lightly) which strangely, seemed to be brought on by water or cold air going into one of my ears (the ear ache was one ear and on one side of my face).

I had taken to using a piece of cotton wool in the 'bad' ear and by the time I found Dr Khan, had been doing so for FOUR YEARS. It was no joke and I worried I would never get to the bottom of what was wrong. Provided I made sure to not let any cold air at all into my ear (really not easy) I could just about keep the pain at bay, but it would strike now and again nevertheless. I wouldn't be able to say how often, perhaps every month, sometimes more, sometimes less, but it was literally agony.

Dr Khan confirmed I had severe TMJ, that my jaw was misaligned and as a consequence, this was affecting my eustachian tube. This was a revelation (I'd previously had it inferred by doctors that they couldn't see anything the matter...) and I started a course of Invisalign to fix the issues.

The first week or two went absolutely fine, but then I developed a cough. Particularly when laying down and coughed enough to be choking. I feared I would need to stop the Invisalign, that perhaps they didn't agree with me for some reason. I had a chat with Dr Khan on the phone though and he explained that my cough was due to likely years of trapped mucus releasing, in line with my jaw adjusting and not pressing on the eustachian tube. The Invisalign was already working!!

After about four months of using Invisalign I was able to finally be rid of the cotton wool I used to protect my ear from the cold and this was momentous!

I have now completed my course of Invisalign and my ear pain has disappeared. I also used to suffer tinnitus, which was unpleasant and this has also stopped. I suffered agonising ear ache for years on end, but not any more! I really hope that by writing this review I can perhaps help others who might be in the same boat.

If you have ear ache and have tried other treatments, go and see Dr Khan for an assessment, I can't recommend his expertise enough.

After starting Invisalign treatment with Dr. Khan, I have experienced major pain relief and a significant improvement in my quality of life. My bite feels better, and the muscle spasms and pain in my face are mostly gone.

This treatment is the only one that has provided a long-lasting effect and impact. Highly recommended!”

Interestingly, as my teeth gradually shifted into alignment, I noticed a significant reduction in the frequency of my vestibular migraines. The corrected alignment of my teeth have contributed to a more stable bite, relieving tension in my jaw and has helped to mitigate triggers for my vestibular migraines.

The positive impact on my overall well-being has been profound, and I am grateful for the unexpected health benefits that accompanied my decision to choose Invisalign for orthodontic treatment.

One thing to consider is that recovery isn't instantaneous but Dr Khan has shown dedication and true passion to helping my symptoms to improve over a 2 year period.

I would also encourage others to combine Invisalign treatment with others that address the muscles on your neck and posture. Together, they have speeded up my symptoms improving. I have also considered reducing certain trigger foods. However, it was thanks to the Invisalign treatment with Dr Khan and osteopathy that I have been able to reintroduce certain foods.

In conclusion, Invisalign has not only transformed my smile but has also played a vital role in alleviating the burden of vestibular migraines. The journey to a straighter smile turned out to be a journey toward improved health and well-being, making Invisalign and Dr Khan's knowledge an invaluable investment in both my dental and overall health. I highly recommend Invisalign not only for those seeking orthodontic correction but also for individuals looking to address unexpected health challenges related to dental alignment such as vestibular migraines."

I was desperate as I had to quit my job because it was overwhelming and I was getting vertigo for two weeks every month and was bedridden.

I researched it a lot and found Dr Fareed Khan online who treated TMJ sufferers and I finally embarked on my journey with him and Invisalign two years ago. The first year of Invisalign for TMJ helped me immensely and I only had two vertigo episodes that year. This year (2nd year) I have only had one episode. Currently it has been over 6 months of no vertigo and the tinnitus has diminished a lot.

I can exercise now which I couldn’t before and I feel better and relieved the pain caused by my TMJ has nearly gone.

I highly recommend DR Khan’s treatment for TMJ as it has highly improved my quality of life."

They sent me off with some jaw exercises and muscular relaxants and told me to wait it out and be patient - it should get better soon.

This was very frustrating news to receive and so I began researching treatments for TMD, which is when I discovered Perfect Smile and Dr Khan and his use of Invisalign to improve TMD symptoms.

After an initial consultation with Dr Khan, I felt relieved. Finally something to treat my condition!

After just weeks of Invisalign, my symptoms reduced massively. I no longer woke up with a sore locked jaw, there was no grinding, little to no headaches and no pain in my joints.

I couldn’t believe it! And to top it all off, I now have beautifully straight teeth which is an added bonus!

I was extremely impressed by Dr Khan’s knowledge of my bite and jaw and how Invisalign worked to transform this. I’m extremely grateful to Dr Khan and cannot recommend him and this treatment enough”

As a bonus I have beautiful wide smile and because of expanded arches my tongue finally has enough space to rest without obstructing my airways. I finally can breathe effortlessly during the day and without snoring during the night. I am very grateful to Dr Khan and his brilliant team.”

At my initial consultation I can remember being a bit confused by the questions I was asked. Dr Khan asked if suffered with headaches at all – yes I did, I had long suffered from tension headaches that had always been attributed to stress. Did my jaw click – yes it did and it was something I just thought I had to live with. Did I suffer with sinus issues – yes, I used to often have problems with my sinuses. Did I have neck pain – yes down the left side of my neck it used to ache an awful lot (incidentally the same side my jaw clicked). Were there any other ailments I had worth noting in my head/ neck area – yes I had an ear (again left side) that felt continually blocked and like I needed to yawn to unblock it, irritating my clicking jaw in the meantime. I had actually been to the Drs about my ear and they had said there was no concern from anything they could see and it was something to live with, they recommended using a nasal spray as it could be linked to my sinuses, but that never did anything so I had just accepted it was not going away.

After all these questions, Dr Khan then did the assessment on my teeth and took pictures of my face and jaw. When we sat back down to go through them, he explained why he had asked all the questions, pointing out that many of the problems I had been facing were likely linked to how my jaw was set. It was fascinating to listen and felt incredible to finally have someone taking these things seriously and offering a potential solution. As I say, I had visited for purely aesthetic reasons to begin with, but the reason I commenced the treatment and signed up right away was because of that initial consultation.

Upon commencing treatment the first thing I noticed was my clicking jaw, within a matter of months this had settled and was nowhere near as prevalent as it had been previously. Having completed my treatment now, the click in my jaw has completely disappeared. The other thing that went away quite quickly was the tension headaches, which seemed markedly less strong and became less and less frequent as we moved through the treatment. As pressure was eased from my face and my jaw reset, the restrictions I had felt within my sinuses also eased – which meant less colds and stuffy noses during the winter and hay fever season.

Two years later I have completed my treatment and can honestly say it was the best thing I ever did. On the aesthetic side, not only is my smile much straighter, but my face more symmetrical, but going well beyond that the treatment managed to correct many ailments I had just accepted I was to live with. My ear is now unblocked 90% of the time, which is absolutely amazing as I now no longer need to continually yawn to try and unblock it. The neck pain I experienced has also significantly eased. Tension headaches have now all but disappeared, and when they do arise I know they are actually stress related and not anything else. My sinuses remain unblocked and I can breathe much more freely.

I genuinely cannot recommend Dr Khan enough. His treatment plan completely blew me away and exceeded all expectations.

Fortunately, during a routine check up, my dentist asked if I suffered from headaches, as she had noticed some jaw misalignment. Shortly after, I signed up for Invisalign treatment with Dr Fareed Khan and I have to say 2.5 years on, I have noticed a remarkable benefit to my migraines. I have gone from virtually no migraine-free days to now only having an attack once every few months, and at a much more manageable level. I am certain that the Invisalign had a huge part to play in this progress. It took a long time (at least a year) before I really noticed the benefits, but I am so glad I stuck with it as it’s been life changing to rid myself of the pain and exhaust of life with migraines.

What’s been a wonderful benefit too is how fantastic my teeth are looking! All my friends and family comment on how great they are! It was definitely the right decision for me.

I explained to Dr Khan that I was initially only interested in straightening my teeth and this was fixed in about 6-8 months, it was an amazing result and I found it really easy to get used to wearing Invisalign.  It didn’t irritate me, it all felt very hygienic and no one noticed that I was wearing braces and I only needed to visit Dr Khan every other month for a quick appointment, which meant it didn’t feel like a big task to be wearing Invisalign.

After my teeth was straightened Dr Khan explained that we could explore further what more we can do with Invisalign if I wanted to as I’ve mentioned to him before that I grind my teeth.

In 2008 my dentist pointed out to me that I am grinding my teeth and that I should consider getting a mouthguard to sleep with at night.  As it was quite expensive I did not consider this until 2011 when my grinding became so bad that I would wake myself up at night having chipped my front tooth. I was scared I was going to break my teeth if I did not seek help.  After visiting the dentist we ordered a mouthguard and he filled in the chip in my front tooth.  It took some time to get used to the mouthguard as it is quite thick and uncomfortable and I’ve never worn anything like it before.  The first initial months went okay wearing the mouthguard but then I started noticing that I would wake up at night and not be wearing it anymore.  I’ve obviously taken it out in my sleep as it was annoying me so I’d have to search for it and put it back in.  This routine would happen easily up to 5 times a night and I would always wake up in the morning having taken it out again.  I had to have the chip in my front tooth filled in quite a few times as it just kept chipping (due to me being unable to sleep with my mouthguard) and eventually the dentist said that it is best I don’t fill the chip in my tooth in anymore as I’ll just chip it out again.  Eventually I gave up using it and threw it away as it just did not work for me.  I used to get a really stiff jaw and neck, my gums were receding and I suffered from bad headaches all due to grinding during this period which was not ideal after not having had any sleep.

Dr Khan assessed my teeth and we kept experimenting with Invisalign until the grinding stopped.  It is a wonderful feeling as I’m not scared that I’ll wake up chipping my teeth anymore.  We’ve adapted some of my lower teeth to be more hygienic, my gums have stopped receding, we widened my smile and all of this means my teeth are less crowded and my jaw is more relaxed.  I don’t suffer from headaches anymore and all of this means I get a better night’s rest now and my teeth are much healthier – even my hygienist said that my teeth are the healthiest it’s ever been.

I cannot recommend Invisalign enough (and Dr Khan), all in all it was a great experience and one I would encourage you to consider if you had similar symptoms.”

It hurt, I got a shooting pain and an aching pain from my ear to my mouth and it was irritating too because all I could hear was my heart beat.  Everyone said to blow my nose, yawn, etc etc, the usual, but it didn’t work.  The only thing which gave me a few seconds of relief was to tilt my head back.  This seemed to stretch some part of some tube or other and my ear would clear.  Or if I looked down, and bent my head downwards this sometimes worked.  But generally the only relief I got was a few moments of clearance.  As soon as my head went to it’s normal position, the ear blocked up again.  Sometimes it worked and cleared it for the rest of the day, most times it didn’t.  Sometimes my only relief was to lie down with my head tilted backwards.  I used to spend periods of time in tears because it was so unpleasant.  It was ruining my life.

I went to the doctors, who referred me to Benendon.  Here I had pressure tests, hearing tests, and cameras down my throat or nose.  But they never could find anything wrong.  They sent me away with a “you’ll just have to put up with it”.  I went back to the doctors and was referred to the NHS ENT specialists, same thing again, they couldn’t find anything wrong.

I saw a homeopath and visited a Chinese Herbalist, but the treatment didn’t work (acupuncture, teas, tinctures etc).

I also noticed that when I was under stress or pressure the symptoms came on and lasted all day.  Perhaps the way I held my jaw or something?

At the end of my tether, you find me in 2016.  One of the girls at work had just come back from seeing Dr Khan for a brace.  She told me he was a holistic dentist, he treated the whole face and jaw, not just the teeth…. I made the decision then and there that I’d see him, and made an appointment.

He asked me lots of questions about my general health, headaches (which I had daily), jaw ache, how my ears behaved when flying (agony), neck, shoulders etc etc.  He explained how he believed the treatment would help.   It would help to drain my sinuses, help to ease my headaches, and most importantly would re align my jaw so that it didn’t press against the tube in my ear which potentially was what was causing my blockages (he x-rayed and showed me how my jaw was resting).  I had absolutely every faith it would work and began treatment.

A year in, and my ear was still blocking up… my headaches had eased so that I barely noticed them, but my ear was still blocking up.  I was still under the NHS ENT specialists, and went again for more tests, and again they couldn’t find anything wrong.  But my ears were still blocking up…. and then I noticed they weren’t blocking up as much… and soon I realised that when I cleared them, it generally worked straight away and lasted… and my headaches had gone… Sometimes it got worse and I was miserable, and even said to Dr Khan “It isn’t working, is all this worth it?”! to which I’d get a lecture which made sense and I’d go away with positivity!

The NHS ENT specialists wanted to refer me to some other specialist to do with splints for jaws and stuff as a last resort, but Dr Khan forbade me!  And with good reason, and anyway, I wanted to carry on with the treatment, as long as it takes, even if it takes 5 years I didn’t care…

At intervals I had new photographs which showed how my teeth were changing, and of course my teeth were now nice and straight and everyone was commenting but it didn’t really mean that much to me because what I really wanted to change was my ear.  Mind you, now I could see positive changes and I loved them!  My lips were fuller, my jaw wasn’t so set back, and my teeth were straight!  The chips I had in them were repaired and they stayed repaired!

About a year ago I realised that my ear was hardly blocking up at all (before treatment it had been weekly, and in many cases, daily), and when it did block it was only for literally 5 seconds max.  And then about 3 months ago I realised that my ear wasn’t blocking up at ALL.  When I used to go to the gym the humidity of a workout made it block up, but it doesn’t seem to any more.  I couldn’t sleep on my left side before because it used to make my ear block up for the whole day, and now it doesn’t!  I can now sleep on my left side with no side effects whatsoever!  I’ve very recently suffered an unexpected bereavement, and my ear hasn’t blocked up once.  Not once.   On very rare occasions my ear goes as if to block up, it goes how it used to go before it blocked up and I sometimes think “oh no, oh no!” but it never (touch wood) actually does block up.

I’ve still got a little longer to go with the treatment, and I’m keen to continue with it, but if you’ve tried everything and everything’s failed, and you’re in pain and at your wits end, this mode of treatment will work.  I highly recommend it, and specifically Dr Khan.  Any old dentist can fit a brace and make your teeth straight, but it’s because of the forward thinking of Dr Khan and his research into how the jaw and teeth can be changed to treat other ailments that’s made the difference and made the treatment worthwhile.  I didn’t care about my teeth before, they were chipped and crooked and all sorts –  it was my ear and jaw that worried me, and as far as I’m concerned, I’m now successfully treated where all others failed.”