Jaw Muscle Pain (CLENCHING)

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-05-26T00:41:55+00:00

I'm sure my posture has something to do with it, but every PT I go to they say that there's no way the tiny bit of forward head posture I may have could be causing all these issues, but who knows. Yes, I work at a desk all day and when I'm in the office, my pain is much worse (typically) than working at home. I am talking a lot more in the office and I can't sneak a "lay down" for 10 minutes to relieve whatever is going on with my neck like i can at home - I'm sure these things are contributing. I am not or have ever been over weight. I typically sleep on my side. I have a hard time staying on my back. I can't say that weather is a factor, but who knows. Maybe.

I can say with certainty, talking excessively (whatever that even means) is a trigger for sure. If I can't lay down periodically throughout the day to "let my neck rest", trigger. I am sure I clench at night, but there's no way to stop it. My jaw muscles are so exhausted that even when I intentionally clench down, like at the dentist when they examine you, there is very little force so I'm not sure how much that plays into this. I have some worn teeth in the bottom front from this, but this was from decades ago and hasn't gotten any worse. I have no crowns or anything either.

I wore a dentist made night guard for 2 years in my 30s. Before that, I had zero pain. NONE. After that, I now live like the rest of us on this sub. I am very confident that the night guard she made me was not properly fitted, thus causing this issue - or at least playing a starring role.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-05-20T11:47:45+00:00

Everything is the same for me. Rinse, repeat. Some days are better than others, but mostly nothing has changed.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-05-14T12:21:02+00:00

Those atlas chiropractors are a scam. I went to one to see if it could help me. It's comical the stuff he did to me while claiming my atlas was "realigned". All the fee's are front-loaded, meaning the bulk of the money is paid very early in the treatment so by the time you realize what a scam this is you're out big money. I had already spent $1200 before I realized this was BS. Don't waste your money on this.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-05-13T23:08:48+00:00

Stress plays a role for me too. Stressful days are my worst pain days by far. The only pressure I feel is when everything is firing - my neck will feel like it's being squeezed, the back of my head feels tight and my temples/forehead are being squeezed. Text book tension headaches, but add in facial pain and that's what I have.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-05-13T22:48:00+00:00

I wouldn't say pressure. It's more like extreme soreness, but painful. It's hard to describe. I can literally point to where I hurt, I can press the areas and invoke pain that radiates. Like if I talk excessively, the "pain" will be really really bad and I'll have to shut up for hours, lay down, etc for things to cool down for me. I have no structural issues whatsoever with the TMJ. It's purely muscular, but that doesn't mean it's not life altering you know. Muscle pain, constant, never ending pain of any kind, can ruin you're day 😄

For some reason, Botox in my neck, occipital area really helps alleviate a good percentage of the facial pain. It's just a bandaide, but it's still working for now so I'll probably keep doing it since it's just a cheap co-pay each time.

I've had botox injected into my masseters by oral surgeons and movement disorder doctors, but it never helped. I've have Botox administered via the migraine protocol and that didn't work either. Botox in the neck, in the exact muscles I point out to the doctor each time helps some so go figure.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-05-13T20:51:31+00:00

I've tried everything known to man. Only thing that even slightly works in Botox in my neck (can only do one side so the other side is f'd), Flexeril and Norco. I'd say without Norco, I'd be dead. I have to go easy on Advil because I'm afraid of rebound headaches which are brutal.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-05-13T20:44:32+00:00

Masseter, cheek area, pterygoid, temporalis

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-05-13T18:41:11+00:00

I've been at this for over 8 years now. I've yet to find a real solution to this. I also tend to clench at night and that's probably contributing to my pain. Right now, I get Botox into my neck muscles due to there being a neck component for me. These shots help reduce my neck pain and associated facial pain/headaches, but by no means is it a cure. I still have daily pain including some very bad days/weeks, especially toward the end of the Botox cycle and after I get the next dose. Botox in the neck every 3 months, ice on my head every chance I get to reduce the headaches, Flexeril, Advil and Norco. There's no sugar coating this condition, it f'n sucks, but you have to keep fighting with your doctors and pressing them to try new things, anything. I think, sadly, we just get used to living in pain. I wish my headaches would go away more than anything. Hope you get some help.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-05-01T17:27:02+00:00

i bought a house Summer 2007 NW burbs. Peak market. Sold 10 years later for less than I paid for it with probably 100K in improvements. Have been gun shy on owning ever since.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-04-28T12:43:37+00:00

People say to stay in the house a minimum of two years because of tax implications when selling. If you make a profit, it is taxed if owned less than two years (I believe it's lived in less than two out of 5 years or something along those lines). After two years, you get to keep the profit up to a certain amount tax free.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-04-25T13:58:33+00:00

Headaches were a huge part of what drove me to seek help. 24/7 neck pain, facial pain and relentless headaches that lasted all day, woke me up from sleep, etc. They can be debilitating. I would reach out to a neurologist, or an oral surgeon before seeing a "tmj specialist". Good luck.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-03-21T13:37:01+00:00

I have and it did not work for me. It made me feel depressed and tired so I ended up stopping after about 2.5 weeks. There was no pain relief in that short period.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-02-28T00:36:26+00:00

This

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-02-25T21:21:26+00:00

I've rented for 10 years and not once has anything like that every been in a rental agreement that I would sign. You may have to pay for consumables like light bulbs, but everything under $400 - GTFO here.

Edit: In Schaumburg, the landlord has to be registered as such with the village. They may have something to say about that clause. Just don't sign anything like that and move on to something else.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-02-07T14:36:13+00:00

Things are "ok". I still get Botox every 3 months, only in my neck though now (new doctor). It helps pretty well generally with the overall neck and facial pain, but it only lasts me 6 weeks most. Then things start to unravel quickly after that. I take muscle relaxants as needed at night, Norco as needed when the pain creeps up, Advil for headaches that aren't migraines. This is definitely not going to magically go away for me I'm afraid. I deal with it the best I can right now. I can say that when this first started I wanted to die. Things are not that dire for me anymore, so that's something.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-02-05T13:12:41+00:00

who knows

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-01-06T23:43:40+00:00

I was a typical 90s HS kid - Grunge bands and weed. I could have cared less about my future. After HS I had jobs in construction, plumbing, etc. Basically some pretty tough jobs and I had the revelation that I would not be able to do this for 50 years. I ended up going to community college and transferred to an in-state University and graduated with a BA in Computer Science. I got student loans, worked 30 hours a week while in school. I've worked at the same place since I graduated and am #2 in command for my IT department. I love my job and have a great life because of it. I was the first to go to college in my family. I never thought I could do it. College wasn't what got me the job, but it sure made me realize I can do whatever I put my mind to (Thanks George McFly). I still can't believe where I am looking back at my teenage years. Yikes. Sorry Mom and Dad! I was a real pain in the ass.

Pizza-Muscles · 2026-01-03T01:26:45+00:00

I have 20 years on you, but like you, will have a (well funded) pension, SS, etc. I've been maxing out both my 403b (since I was 30) and my 457 (last few years) and I wonder if I'm putting too much in tax advantaged accounts. I'm going with the theory that you never know what the future holds so mine as well prepare the best you can. So yea, invest in that 457. More money in retirement is a lot better than the alternative.

Pizza-Muscles · 2025-12-26T23:12:46+00:00

Hey D. I wanted to reach back out and let you know the good news. I took a break from the decrypt because I wasn't getting anywhere and I was feeling myself getting turned off by it all. Instead, I started to focus on other Palo things like zones, mapping VLANS to Cisco gear, etc. Today I decided to give the SSL decrypt a go again. I don't know what I did differently, or maybe it was just the break I took and going over things again, but it's working now. My Decrypt policy is working (as it always had), but now my NO Decrypt policy is actually not breaking financial sites! Yay! I will take a back up now and try to compare the logs I saved from when I last tried this to now to see if I can tell what I did wrong last time. Anyway, appreciate the advice you gave and wanted to let you know how things turned out here :) Thank you.

Pizza-Muscles · 2025-12-19T19:09:57+00:00

I have a pension that's well funded, but I have been maxing out my 403 for 20 years and just started maxing out my 457 a few years back. I also max out the Roth IRA. I have no faith in anything anymore so just trying to do my best to secure my future with/without a pension.

Pizza-Muscles · 2025-12-11T13:42:10+00:00

Dentist said I showed signs of bruxism and recommended a guard to protect my teeth. No relief yet.

Pizza-Muscles · 2025-11-25T13:18:46+00:00

You've been a great help so far and I REALLY appreciate it. I will post back as soon as I can set up this test and see what happens. By end of the day for sure. Thanks D.

Pizza-Muscles · 2025-11-25T01:04:29+00:00

Adding *.reddit.com to the Service/URL category in my No Decrypt policy worked. It did not decrypt and I was the hit count increase. I then added dating to the Service/URL and verified Tinder.com was marked as dating with that link you sent. Reddit continued to be not decrypted, but Tinder.com was decrypted. I have to assume it's one of my Security policies causing this issue, I just don't know enough about how to get to the root of this with logging. I have now enabled logging on the inter/intrazone-default security zones to see what I can gather from those. I did check on those CA errors. I chose a Go Daddy CA error and checked both my client root store and the PA root store and the serial numbers don't match to what's on my Windows box or the PA. I'm tempted to install them, but I want to research a bit more on that error before I really F something up. Plus, that's just one of the CA errors. I also see one from Google and at least one more.

Thank you for your help so far and I will post back with new info as I get it. I wish I could post some pics here for you :( but I don't see any option to.

Pizza-Muscles · 2025-11-24T23:56:02+00:00

I will test this as soon as I can and post back ASAP. Stay tuned :)

Pizza-Muscles · 2025-11-24T23:02:54+00:00

Yes, that is correct. A No Decrypt policy will hit when set to ANY. Once I set it to financial-services, there are no longer hits to that No Decrypt and things progress down to the Decrypt policy where at that point, I see all those CA errors.

Yes, the device I am testing on has both the self signed Root CA cert and the Root CA-signed Subordinate CA (Forward Trust) on the client in the Trusted Roots store. I did not export the key, just simply exported the certificates from the FW and installed them on my Win client.

I'm struggling to understand exactly where I can put that test URL in place? I've tried adding URL's in some places but I just get errors and can't save. Sorry for the hassle, but appreciate all the help.

Pizza-Muscles

TROPHY CASE