jaw pain and ear pain - any solutions?

If in the UK: you can ask to be referred to a tinnitus clinic. This can be helped by the wearing of a hearing aid. Tinnitus is known to affect SS sufferers. It may help your sensitive hearing too. For painful and swollen joints, rather than ibuprofen tablets, I used the diclofenac gel. This is for topical use and works well for me. It has various names ‘forpain’, fenbid, depends on what’s the cheapest they can buy!! For anxiety I take sertraline, at night. Also, I’m no medic, but some of the symptoms, e.g. dizziness can be unrelated to SS. I ignored it over some time, and am presently being treated for sciatica caused by spondylolisthesis of my lumbar spine and the consultant is ordering MRI for my upper spine because of the dizziness. Sorry, cannot help re jaw pain, but SS rots the teeth, so I suppose it might be a dental problem. Best of luck, and hope you can get sorted.

My recent bout of massive jaw pain & swelling was a doubly cracked molar which became infected, requiring a root canal & crown. But it took more than a month for the infection to show on dental xrays ,,, such. Just finished the crown today.

So many billions of people on earth suffer from tinnitus! Only a fraction of those people have SS. There are so many causes of this anniying-to-drives- one-crazy condition. If it an abates at all with turning it tilting your head one way or another (mine doesn't), it is more hopeful. Yes, hearing aids can be set to help with this. I am deaf (from an IV antibiotic I shouldn't have been given 30 years ago -- zero SS connection here!) and tinnitus gets worse and worse over time. Thank God for decent midern hearing aids!

I appreciate all the sharing an insights! I have started using Ary aloe vera nasal spray and it seems promising so far. I have used it for 2 days, several times in a day and my pain is under control! I still get mild headaches, and I am going to see a TMJ specialist and will keep you posted. Best wishes to all of you! 

Don't know if this will be of any help to you travelzhu1 but one thing well known to cause tinnitus is being on anti-inflammatories and I see that you're using Ibuprofen which is one of those medications. I, myself developed tinnitus after being prescribed Diclofenic some years back for my aches and pains, (have spinal problems plus polyosteo-arthritis, cervical spondylosis to name but a few lol), and once you've got it.....you're stuck with it I'm afraid. However, there are things known as noise breakers, (similar to hearing aids but they can be adjusted until they're blocking the ringing/buzzing is being masked), and I was given these when my hearing test showed that I wasn't hard of hearing. Sadly, I was never able to set them to block my ringing but they do work very well if you can get the setting right.....apparently.

?Like you, I also have fibromyalgia aswell as the Sjogren's and many of the symptoms overlap with each other including the chronic fatigue and BOY would I like to be rid of that lol

?But, I do also suffer from TMJ pain and my doctor prescribed Nortriptyline for me at night to help with that and once it went up to 50mg a night, it certainly did the trick. It's of the same family as Amytriptyline but I'd had some unwanted side effects when I was on that, hence the change to the Nortriptyline which tends to have less side effects. Because of my fibro and other pain, I don't get undisturbed sleep, waking several times every night but have now discovered something that does help me get off to sleep a bit quicker at least! A glass of cherry juice about an hour before bed! And it honestly does work!

?I'd seen an article on how eating cherries or drinking cherry juice before bed, helps the body produce it's own melatonin which is a hormone naturally produced by the body needed for sleeping. Knowing that it's only cherry juice, I gave it a go and was amazed to find that it actually did have me drifting off after only an hour and a half of reading as oppose to my usual 3 hours lol One thing to remember though, if anybody else tries it, don't drink it just before you go to bed or you'll be up tiddling in the middle of the night which is no help for us at all lol I find the hour before bed works a treat and no moonlit tiddle trips required.

?Nearly forgot to tell you that I am on Hydroxychloroquine, aka Plaquenil outside of the UK but exactly the same compound, (just been doubled to 400mg a day from it's previous 200mg), and have also been taking Methotrexate for 3 weeks too because my Rheumatologist feels that this will be beneficial for my Sjogren's and the inflammation I have associated with my Connective Tissue Disorder. Rheumatologist also put me on a 25 day course of steroids which I'm due to finish in 4 days time. To be honest, I can't say that the steroids have made any difference to any of my symptoms but have given me the munchies which doesn't help the ever expanding waistline Be glad when I'm finished those.

?I do hope you can get something to ease your TMJ pain travelzhu1 because I know how awfully painful it can be. When mine was at it's worst, I could barely open my mouth wide enough to eat properly and yawning......ohhhhhhh that was agony! Semi-closed mouths whilst yawning are extremely painful too lol The other advice about getting your dentist to make you a gum shield to wear at night can also be helpful if you are a teeth grinder. I'm not a grinder so was just unfortunate to get the TMJ probs. Mu hubby grinds his teeth so badly that it's a wonder he has any left but has never suffered any TMJ pain, lucky devil.

?Hope you can get some relief and apologies if none of my post has been useful.

Chin up,

?Hippyginger

Yes I had bad jaw pain, ear pain to both of them would run up behind the ear that side of head and ear lob would feel sore or burning type feeling sometimes just pain. for a couple of years went to several doctors, they could not find anything wrong just said it was TMJ, you are so right its painful nothing will ease the pain, I have had all your symptons, just get something new all the time, started now having headache' s alone with eye problems they swell on me. I take Aleve it up sets my stomach at times. I'm not on autoimmune medication either, but they want to put me on it, I have fear of them meds. Just wanted you to know you are not alone. God Bless !

Sorry to hear you're suffering so much travelzhu1 but as to your ringing in your ears, (tinnitus), I may have a reason  why you're suffering. I see you've been taking Ibuprofen, which is an anti-inflammatory medication and the majority of those can cause tinnitus. I speak as one who also has this ever since taking Diclofenac, (another anti-inflammatory), many years ago. However, while there is currently no known cure for this, there are things that can help you cope with it and your GP would be able to refer you an ENT specialist who can confirm that you have tinnitus and not deafness and then be able to supply you with some things to mask out the noise. Mine are called noise-breakers and look similar to hearing aids but their job is to mask the ringing, (or whistling, tinkling or other noises all under the umbrella of tinnitus), by turning up their level. Sadly I've never been that successful at getting them to mask my tinnitus but they definitely are beneficial if you can work them correctly. You can also get things that go under your pillow that do the same sort of thing so that you won't be bothered by the noises as you try to get off to sleep.

?With regard to your jaw pain, I'm also guessing that this could be TMJ pain as I, too have had that. Thankfully my GP prescribed me with Nortriptyline at night which helps both my jaw and neck pain albeit an anti-depressant, it's beneficial for TMJ pain too. The worst downside to my taking the Nortriptyline is that it adds to my dry mouth problems but every night in bed I suck on a Salivix pastille to stimulate saliva production so that helps as I nod off. 

When I had my worst TMJ pain, I couldn't even open my mouth wide enough to yawn because it was agony. Have you ever tried to yawn without opening your mouth wide enough? Funny.....it ain't lol First of all for my neck pain I was prescribed Amitriptyline but had too many unpleasant side effects with that but the Nortriptyline has less and I'm tolerating that just fine apart from it probably adding to my dry mouth probs lol.

?Hope you can get some relief and very soon, if you haven't already by the time you read this.

I was diagnosed with sjorgrens at 30 and luckily experienced dry eyes only up until now . I am 48 , I have just reached menopause, which is linked to Sjorgrens flares. My symptoms have worsened , with severe dryness , eyes , mouth , vaginal and now ears. I have had ear and jaw pain for the last 18 months . I have also had Arthritis in my hands and feet . I now take a little known drug called LDN . Low Dose Naltrexone. While it has not helped with dryness , it has significantly reduced Arthritis pain and the pain in my ear and jaw . I can still feel that something is not quite right in my ear , but at least I have no pain .

Hi , I've had ear / jaw pain for many years . After a sudden onset of unilateral deafness resulting in a 75% hearing loss with no diagnosis following MRI I persuaded my dentist to refer me to The Dental Hospital. I'd tried numerous things including Cerezen appliances in my ear canal , pain relief and TMJ excercises  . I was utterly gobsmacked when I was told by the Dental Hospital Professor  I may have Wegners Granulomatosis. Blood tests revealed I have antibodies which suggests Sjogrens Syndrome . I am in the process of numerous tests and have appointment with a Rheumatologist next week . There are lots of other health issues which I have which could come under the SS but I will wait and see . I've had to diagnose and treat myself many times due to Doctors not understanding my symptoms . Incidentally my last hearing test revealed an improvement to 35% loss which my ENT Dr said was impossible ....however since I'd recently been told about the SS and disclosed this information to him he was very surprised as it wasn't something he would have considered but agreed it may well be the cause. ...my journey continues....