I have had one serious painful bout w/ TMJ, my dentist made a night guard for me, tho I'm not sure if it helped, or if it subsided on it's own. Since birth the left side of my jaw bone is shorter than the right. Measuring from the hinge of the jaw straight down to the bottom corner there is about 1/2" difference. This, of course, provides for some fairly pronounced malocclusion.

I have had at times:

jaw popping when I chew,

intermittent shooting pains into my earlobes and down into my shoulders,

popping in my ear canal that sounds a little like flexing sheet metal (feels like flexing cartilage).

Recently my massage therapist tells me there is a lot of muscle tension in the left jaw-hinge area. I have been able to massage it out somewhat since I have realized it's there.

I have read somewhere on the net that there is a way to make bone grow by cutting the bone, inserting a screw device which is turned a little each day to slightly increase the gap between the bone halves and new bone fills in the gap until enough growth is achieved, then the device is removed.

That's pretty astounding to me but even if I could afford it, I don't think I would want to opt for surgery.

So... has any of you ever heard of any less invasive way to encourage bone growth? I would sure be interested in learning about it.

Yes, I am aware that an aligned jaw would mean misaligned teeth, now that some creative dentistry has finally gotten my smile to appear somewhat even.