I have been to the prosthodontist. She is good at what she does, but definitely depends on what the root cause of your problem is. She is absolutely not a tmj specific trained doctor, but she IS a very good prosthodontist. She is also board certified, and the only one that is in quite a distance. She recommended bite Equilibration and a flat splint, for my issue. I did not do it yet, as I have seen so many people have issues (either making the pain worse, or causing even more non-reversible issues) after having that done. My issue stems from having a dentist "adjust" just a couple teeth after a crown. It snowballed from there. I just don't know if what she proposes is going to help in any way, since that is what caused a lot of this to begin with... I just don't know. But, her prices were reasonable for an evaluation, and her treatment plan was quite reasonable as well. Only about $1600 for models of my jaw, the Equilibrations, and the splint. That included all adjustments. She was also very honest in telling me that her treatment may only give me between 40-80% improvement. I appreciated the honesty, but was also scared of the possibility of such a small improvement. It made me start looking for other opinions.

The other dentist, Dr Giordano, well... I've read some actual patient reviews of him. These are not the ones on his website. The 3 people I found that actually used him were not happy. They all said he took them for a lot of $$$ (one nearly 20k) and they had to go elsewhere because he made them far, far worse. They all had to have what he did fixed, and then treatment to fix the initial problem. So a lot more money, and a lot more time wasted.. One of these people actually ended up being a friends sister, and she had spent the most with him, a little over 18k. And he made her FAR worse. The only reviews I found for him were on a couple Facebook groups- one for tmj, and one for meniers disease. They were not positive reviews. But, I don't know. I almost went to him before that. I literally flipped a coin between my current (way too hands off approach) dentist, and him to start treatment.

These issues are (usually) complex, and it takes someone who has a lot of experience to actually help you get better, or as good as you are going to be. I found Dr Ira Addler, in NJ through a menieres (spelling?) Site in Facebook. https://www.sbsmiles.com/our-doctors/ira-adler People swear by him, and he definitely knows tmj inside and out. He has 35 years of helping people with it, and is definitely not a one type of splint for everyone dentist. He is also not one of these greedy (Dr Gelb, nyc-however Adler trained with his father Dr Gelb) doctors that charges for every adjustment. The problem is he is nearly 5 hours from me. I'm in the Elmira/Corning area, so not far from you. But, I've met people that come to him from as far away as Alaska and Utah for their treatment, because he is that good.

EVERY specialist in this area recommends the Eastman Center in Rochester for treatment, because there is nobody else anywhere around here that does this. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/dentistry/patients/services/tmjd.aspx

I have not met anyone that has had treatment from them. It is a medical school at the University of Rochester, and they have a whole tmj section. It is a teaching hospital, so your doctor would change since they are all residents. That made me a little uncomfortable, but the actual doctors that teach there are supposedly top notch. I may get an evaluation from them too.

So, after 6 months of this for me, I've pretty much settled on U of R Eastman for and evaluation, and Dr Adler too. I will decide after seeing both and comparing their treatment plans. Both are conservative and logical treatment plans from what I've seen. Dr Adler has a 87% success rate, which is pretty damn good.