But another dentist "wasn't sure what it was," and neither the patient or his wife felt TMJ was an accurate diagnosis.
The patient sought help from a dentist, who discovered that tenderness was only in the joint where his jaw attached to his skull, concluding that the man's symptoms were most likely from a common disorder called temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ).
The areas around his head and face where the pressure was the most intense were so tender that he couldn't even brush his hair on the right side of his head.Ī few days later, he began experiencing pain in his jaw when he opened and closed his mouth, and the pain was especially bad when chewing. One night, a headache with an intense squeezing pressure woke the patient up from a dead sleep-and the same thing kept happening every night for three weeks. Then, an unlikely source-an art gallery director-suggested he may have a rare autoimmune disease, Lisa Sanders writes for New York Times Magazine.Įxpedite patient diagnosis 'An octopus of pain' was wrapped around his skull When a 66-year-old man started experiencing "an octopus of pain wrapped around the right side of his skull," doctors offered multiple diagnoses-but nothing seemed to fit. Editor's note: This popular story from the Daily Briefing's archives was republished on Jun.
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