Do I have TMJ (Temporomandibular joint disorder)?
You don’t need to have all the symptoms you listed to have a TMJ disorder. Many people just have clicking and popping of the jaw. Females, however, almost always have headaches when they are older (18 or later). Males usually do not have headaches. Clicking and popping of the jaw is a diagnostic sign of a TMJ disorder because normal joints do not make any noise when they function (like your finger joints and knee joints). Your posting is also contradictory. First you say you hear clicking in your ear when you open and swallow then on the list of “don’t haves” you listed clicking when opening your mouth. the two are both the same. You do not need to have clicking, popping, and grating sounds all at once to have TMJ. The grating is a more advanced condition and not usually found in people with the beginning stages of the disorder. If you do have TMJ, it only gets worse over time and never goes away unless it is secondary. By secondary I mean your TMJ is normal but some external factor li
