RNY and TMJ

Does anyone have tmj? I'm worried about all the chewing I'm going to have to do.

I do. It never really bothered me much prior to surgery unless I chewed gum and did not even think about the chewing. My plan calls for liquids up to soft stuff for the first 6-7 weeks , although 1/4 piece of toast and a cracker were allowed. When I started real food I did not notice any problems with the amount of chewing... because the number of bites is small, and you just chew it to mush. 1/4-1/2cup of food, even chewed yo mush is no where near the number of bites/chewing I would get in an average meal.
Obviously, my TMJ is not severe.Your experience could be very different.

i clench my teeth very bad at night...my dentist long ago made me a night guard..i bit thru it...i had to do some therapy to get my tongue to rest at the top of my  mouth instead at the bottom of my mouth....i did not even realize that my tongue did that...the first time i had to put my tongue on the top roof o my mouth it gagged me..go figure..dentist called it a lazy tongue...who me?? not me!! but anyhow it would put alot of pressure on the TMJ area where you have that pain...

he gave me an exercise to do to release that pressure....might be hard to explain in writing..much easier to show...

open your jaw just a little, relax it..take your thumb and  place on groove of your chin under your lip...apply gentle pressure doing downward while you are pressing up with your jaw....thumb pushes down while jaw presses up....gentle pressure both ways...then thumb under chin and again same, gentle pressure of opposite directions...thumb pushes up while jaw pushes down.......now thumb on left side of jaw..again same thing...press against...then thumb on right side of jaw.. again same gentle pressure against each other...your jaw will push down, then up, then left, then right....while your thumb or fingers push the opposite direction...it really does help with that area from TMJ.. i do this several times a day....you just hold that slight pressure for a count of maybe 3-5 if that....

i showed this to my massage teacher and he was surprised  that my dentist showed me that..but that was like 18-20  years ago while living in montana...

it really does help...i hope the written directions are clear...it is much easier to show than to write how to do it.. if not, send me a message and i will try again to write it...

have a blessed day...debby

I have TMJ and I didn't even think about it until I read this post.   I suppose mine isn't all that bad.  Yes, you do chew, chew, chew but you get full fast and the portions are very small, especially when you are first on solids.   You will not really be eating hard or very chewey foods for a long time.  No chewing gum after surgery.

I'm about 3 months out and I can't remember my jaw hurting since the surgery.

Best of luck.