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Uh I have this same issue. But it hasn't quite become bad enough for me to find the motivation to deal with it. Both my Dentist and my primary care physician have only been able to suggest wearing a guard at night but that just makes my clenching worse! I think an oral surgeon would probably be your best bet.

It sounds like TMJ. BUT i will say...i was having lots of jaw issues, saw a bunch of people. Some wanted to realign my teeth, put me in braces, do surgery, i even had an arthroscopic jaw clean-out for scar tissue. I wore mouth guards at night. Didn't help. I could barely fit a sandwich into my mouth some days. Nothing helped.

Finally saw a chiropractor at the behest of a dentist....turns out the issue was in my neck, which was messing up my jaw real real bad. My chiropractor still adjusts my jaw when it acts up. It basically gets off its track--one side will be inflamed, the other is fine, and they don't open evenly, so it ends up getting aggravated. But all the face pain, clicking, etc that i was experiencing is gone. GONE!!!

@blackbird: Seriously, I think this is exactly what my problem is. I haven't had pain in a while but I went through ALL the same things you did and tried all the things you did and nothing helped. I didn't go to a chiropractor but I wonder if I subconsciously changed something in my sleeping or what that adjusted my neck somehow and fixed the problem?? My dentist is kind of baffled! (and so am i)

My sister found out that she basically wore down the cartilage in her jaw bones, like where they meet, and that causes her problems. Her dentist referred her to the tmj specialist and they were the ones who were able to help her out. She doesn't have half the problems she used to have with her jaw.

@twist, funny you say that, my chiropractor tested me while I was laying on my pillow and he said it was causing more problems because it wasn't supportive and I was straining my neck in my sleep! I got a new pillow and started to get some relief!