What is osteomyelitis of the jaw?

Jaw dislocation question?

• Hey everyone, I have a dislocated jaw which I dislocated while ice skating. I slipped and fell on the ice without a helmet on directly on my chin and from the impact, my jaw slightly popped out of place. I didn't realize until a few days later when my jaw started to click when I moved it sideways. The dislocated jaw didn't look any different than before. It appeared normally fine besides when I moved my jaw a certain way and it clicked. I had no pain whatsoever and quickly got used to the clicking. A few months after without going to the doctor, I started having a pain whenever It clicked and especially if I ate a lot, for example popcorn at the movies, it would start hurting. It got worse and I decided to go to the doctor. He gave me a kind of night retainer I was supposed to keep every night. This was very helpful and my jaw got a whole lot better very soon, almost to the point that the clicking was fading away. After my jaw became much better and the pain left, I foolishly stopped using the retainer because it was a bother during the night. This happened about 2 years ago. After I stopped using the retainer until now I haven't had any pain. As of recently I've been using it every night just because I want it to completely heal and I don't want to live my whole life with a dislocated clicking jaw. Supposedly a friend of my mom has lived with a dislocated jaw for 30 years without any problems (I'm almost 17), but I do NOT want to live my whole life like that... It appears the retainer will not heal my jaw to the point that its not dislocated anymore. I'm wondering what I should do, continue using the retainer or going to the doctor once more to see my options? I'm completely fine with the idea of a reconstructive surgery of the jaw because I believe it is fractured and damaged not just simply popped out of place. Although I'd prefer a simpler way of solving it. I want to know your opinions, please help me out :D.

• Answer:

  well you should go to the doc again. i recently dislocated my knee cap and went to the doctors. i have been wherein a knee brace for a month now and have gone to the doctors frequently. i have been having to learn how to bend mt knee again so you will probably have to learn how to use your jaw correctly again. but i f you don't want to go to the doctors when it hurts try ice and pain reilivers such as Metronic ETC. hope i helped! :)