I saw the occlusion specialist again today, he had the splint ready, fitted it to my bite. I need to wear it 24/7 for the next week, see him again next Wed and make my decision of whether to go forward or not. If not, I can use the splint as a mouth/night guard.
After looking at the molds of my teeth, peeking inside my mouth, and looking at x-rays, he said I would need to have orthodontics and jaw surgery at the conclusion of this splint therapy. Misaligned jaws are something I was born with, and then the braces I had at age 37 just messed it all up even more (and perhaps the braces when I was 10, but really orthodontics knowledge and ability was not like it is now at 50 years later). I'm missing adult teeth and still have baby teeth, which is partly what caused the orthodontic problems (the orthodontist got my teeth straight, but that was not the main concern). I should have had surgery on my jaw in my teens or early 20's to get the joints aligned correctly.
My sister Cheryl has also read stuff about leaning your hand on your jaw, sleeping, especially at a young age on your side and side of head, and that this can cause jaws to shift. So if you lean your hand on your jaw, quit.
This will take 3-4 years to complete, cost about $20,000 - $30,000 (little of which insurance will pay), and hopefully, my teeth will no longer look like the above pic.
And I hope the ringing has stopped - or at least lowered!!! But the volume is not bad now, most of the time. Dizziness is mostly gone, and headaches are gone.
And that's my sad tale.
As I was reading this, I was leaning my head on my jaw... I stopped.
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