Do I have arthritis?

[John4322]

Hello, I'm 23 and about the beginning of last year I started hearing clicking sounds in my left ear whenever I open my mouth and then the left side of my head(where the head meets the neck) started hurting. Then fast forward to this year like a few weeks back my back started paining me and then my hands and legs joined. None of the pains have gone. None of my joints are swollen nor do I have limited motion. I can move my neck however I want but it hurts. I used to weigh 202lbs, now I weigh 231lbs. Could it be arthritis, weight or tmj disorder causing all these pain

[AnnieBrooke]

The jaw pain and clicking does sound like TMJ. I have it, and while it is not a form of arthritis, it did give me arthritis in that joint after years of the problem. It began for me in high school and now it is years later, and when I had a scan of my head for something else, they casually remarked that I had arthritis in that joint. Well, of course, after years of wear I probably did. Do stop chewing gum if you are in the habit -- it is much harder on the teeth and jaw than you would expect. My dentist told me that we are biologically only expected to eat a few times a day, that the jaw and teeth really are not built for constant chewing all day long, and that the pressure we put on our jaw when chewing gum is much harder than the pressure when we are eating. My jaw healed to the extent that it stopped clicking, but the arthritis is still there.

My guess is that your other aches and pains are not caused by the same thing as the TMJ (unless you are giving yourself TMJ by actual constant eating) -- probably it's not just how much you eat but what you eat, and if you're eating a lot of refined sugars and carbs (such as a lot of sodas, or sweets in general) that can give you inflammation all over. Which can give you tons of aches and pains. At the very least, try going 12 hours in a row without eating, every day. (This is not so hard if you do it at night.) Having a 12-hour break lets your body re-set, and lets your blood sugar drop, and helps you heal.

[AnnieBrooke]

ps -- There are some dentists who specialize in TMJ. My town is around 500,000 people (a million in the metro area) and there are three dentists with this specialty, so if you live in a small place you might have trouble locating one. But it would be worth it, since you're young enough to head off major difficulties with it if you get intervention now.

[specialmom]

You would be awful young to get arthritis but your heavy weight if you are a woman makes that a tiny bit more likely. BUT, clicking in your jaw and pain might be tension and clenching teeth at night while you sleep.  Those are common symptoms of that.  The back pain is not unusual, we all get that sometimes..  TMJ is not really arthritis and again, is due to clenching often. medicinenet.  Try something like ibuprofen to see if it helps, try an ice pack for pain too and avoid chewing gum.  

If you were to have arthritis due to your weight, I'd expect it to be more in your knees.  Did you have any trauma to your back previously (fall, car accident, etc.)? You may simply have muscle ache due to your activity or tension.

Can you see a doctor? They may suggest weight loss if your BMI is too high but can help you understand what osteoarthritis is like.  This really doesn't sound like it. The other thing too you can try is stretching.  That can help.  Think of our body as having a huge rubber band from the top of our head down to the bottoms of our feet.  Its the most under stretched rubber band in history! So, we get hurt along that segment frequently in our life time. Stretching the rubber band can help.  good luck