I have had Lyme disease for almost 9 years. Every antibiotic or treatment I try, I only get worse. My main symptoms are constant dizziness, spaciness, fatigue and I feel off-balance. I also have TMJ so I went to a dentist to try to align my bite (which was off).
The first appliance he gave me was a OSB (oral systemic balance). I felt worse with the appliance (more dizzy) so we moved to the next appliance, which was the SOMA (Splint Orthodontic Myofunctional Appliance). This appliance is supposed to move the teeth and widen the jaw to relieve pressure on the TM joint. I wore that appliance for almost four months and I just progressively got A LOT worse. I became completely bed bound because of constant dizziness and vertigo, my pulse was always racing and I had heart palpitations more often at night. The SOMA is worn 24 hours a day except to eat you take it out.
I started seeing a new Internal medicine doctor and he did not think that the dentist I was seeing was knowledgeable enough and had not had any cases as complex as mine. He said that if your jaw is off and you do not know the correct way to position the jaw that it can cause problems with the sympathetic nervous system, so he referred me to a new dentist.
I have been seeing the new dentist for three weeks now, and I am still getting worse. He gave me a new appliance that I wear 24 hours a day and it keeps my jaw in the correct position all day. The new dentist said that the SOMA is no good because when you eat and take the appliance out your jaw is going back out of place.
I have been wearing that appliance for 2 weeks and I am still getting worse. My resting pulse is usually at least 90 or higher and the dizziness/vertigo/lightheadedness is constant. The problem with this appliance is that at night my mouth opens and I breathe through my mouth, which the dentist thinks is why I have been feeling worse (at night my jaw is out of place and then during the day it goes back in place).
Yesterday he made me an appliance to wear at night and it is a top and bottom appliance that is binded together so that my mouth does not open. I wore it in the office for about 20 minutes straight as he monitored by heart rate with the appliance in, and at the end of the appointment my lips felt chapped. That night when I put the nighttime appliance back in my mouth my bottom lip became swollen and I was more dizzy.
All of these appliances are made of acrylic and the new nighttime appliance wreaked of acrylic. Does anyone know if you can have an allergic reaction to acrylic or if you can develop toxicity to acrylic appliances?? I have progressively been getting A LOT worse since July when I began wearing these appliances. I cannot function each day at all and constantly need to sit or lay down due to dizziness/ vertigo/ racing pulse.
I tried looking up acrylic dental appliances online and could not come up with much. I would really appreciate hearing anyone's opinion. I have kept the appliance out as soon as my lip began to swell and I am waiting for the dentist to call me back.
Please let me know if you have any information about acrylic dental appliances and if they could be why my healthy has been getting so much worse.
THANK YOU! Heather
Posts: 66 | From Dutchess County, NY | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic