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Question:
Lower lip / lower jaw pain: My wife, age 56, is experiencing pain on one side of her lower jaw and her lower lip feels "hard".
Occasionally has difficulty speaking. She also experiences serious tension/stiffness in her neck. Five years ago she had both lower wisdom teeth removed. Both were difficult extractions, with suspected nerve damage.
Tongue swelled about a year ago, but the doctor. felt it was some sort of (undiagnosed) allergic reaction.
Our primary physician is clueless. Dentist says its neurological problem. Neurologist says its a dental problem. ...Visitor from WA
Answer:
I am sorry for your wife's problems. This sounds like a difficult question to do justice to over the internet.
If you have a dental school that is within driving distance, you may want to go to their oral diagnosis department for an evaluation.
Certainly the neck issues could cause nerve problems, the wisdom tooth extraction can cause nerve paresthesia or anesthesias that cause the loss of feeling or a persistant tingling. Tongue swelling is a significant symptom as well.
Your wife could have trigeminal neuralgia, tic doloreaux or other neurological conditions. I would also consider having an oral surgeon do a consultation as well as an endodontist.
This is not an effort to run you around but to localize problems and eliminate certain conditions.
An endodontist can test the nerves of all the teeth to assess the vitality of the nerves. The oral surgeon can map the sensations on the lip, tongue and give an added perspective to helping to give you a diagnosis.
A dental school may give the best place to locate all these specialties under one roof. If this is all without a solution then you will need to go to a different neurologist for another opinion. Best of luck.
Wisconsin Reconstructive Implant Dentistry
Richard Winter, DDS MAGD
Winter Dental Associates
5323 W. Hampton Avenue
Milwaukee Wisconsin WI 53218
(414) 464-9021
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