Zometa and Jaw Dislocation

Zometa and Jaw Dislocation

 

    In the summer of 2021, my pulmonologist told me I should start taking Zometa again to increase my bone density. I had previously taken Fosomax in my formative years of transplant. One side effect of this medicine is jaw necrosis. This scared me as my grandmother had taken one of these drugs in the past and her teeth fell out. I did some research and I didn’t really think it was the best medicine for me. I was reluctant to take it and so my doctor suggested to me that I see an endocrinologist to see what his or her opinion was on the subject. I agreed to do this but asked specifically not to see a certain doctor. I had already seen this doctor in the past and he had not been able to give me any clear information and never made a decision as to whether I should take it or not. I came to find that an appointment was made for me, but it was with this doctor. I eventually just agreed to doing a once-a-year infusion. The week after the third yearly infusion, I noticed my jaw had some pain on the left side by my temple. I asked if this could be related to the medicine but was told that it wasn’t. By the next month, I was eating a sandwich, when suddenly, I felt an extremely sharp pain in my jaw joint on the left side. It went away just as suddenly as it came on. After that, I abandoned my sandwich, so as not to aggravate the area. Things were fine and I thought nothing of it, until once again, a month later, the same thing happened. I didn't think too much of it once again, as I had had TMJ issues in the past. However, this began to become more frequent. Now something new was happening. This pain could be triggered by simply talking, or even just as I opened my mouth slightly. Not only that, but when this happened, my jaw was now coming out of alignment. At first, I was able to manipulate my jaw back into place. However, as time passed, I couldn't maneuver my jaw back into alignment. I had been grinding my teeth for years and used a night guard at night. When my jaw came out of alignment, the only thing that could fix it was grinding my teeth at night, even with my nightguard on. Sometimes it would take up to three nights before it would realign. In the meantime, I had to eat super soft foods like soup or sweet potatoes as my teeth didn’t line up. Even if I could slowly break down softer foods, I wasn't able to chew with pressure because my jaw was out of place. I finally went to the dentist. He called a colleague of his as he wasn’t sure what the best next course of action should be. He told me his colleague, in a neighboring town, could get me an appointment for a 3D scan of my mouth the next day. I was only supposed to get a scan and leave. After the scan, I was instructed to go into the waiting room while they transferred the pictures to a CD. While there, one of the staff members told me that although I had no appointment with the doctor there, he wanted to see me and go over the results, free of charge. They spoke very highly of him and told me what a great man he was. I was placed in a room and waited for him to enter. Indeed, he had a very kind and gentle demeanor. He showed me the films and explained what he saw to me. He pointed out all the things that were abnormal. He explained that the only solution to these problems was surgery. He told me that while he reconstructed people’s jaws that had been in car accidents, his specialty was not jaw joint replacement. He highly recommended a colleague of his and explained that this man did roughly 500 jaw joint replacement surgeries a year and that he was very good at what he did.

    That day I came home and made a phone call to schedule a consultation with the surgeon. I was told that before I came in, I would need an MRI of my jaw. I was very frightened of the idea of being inside a closed MRI. I am quite claustrophobic. I recently had an abdominal MRI and began to panic a bit as they put me into the machine, even though my head wasn’t quite inside of it. I was given a script for Valium to take before the MRI. The people there were very kind and I was given a mask to put over my eyes. This mask helped so much. Because I could not see that I was in a tightly enclosed space, I didn’t have any fear. The MRI was over much quicker than anticipated.