We fetched up in Adelaide at lunchtime and set up for a few days stay.
Jean visited the ENT specialist on Tuesday afternoon and she came out skipping because she was so happy. He had identified her problem straight away from the symptoms. He said the pain was caused by muscle spasm in all the major muscles associated with the temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ). The joint has to bear enormous loads and it is very small resulting in extremely high bearing pressures. The joint may suffer from minor damage which gives rise to inflammation and associated pain. This pain causes the muscles to try to isolate the joint and they go into painful spasm. The treatment is simple. Eat mushy food, use a hot pack when the pain is bad, take mild anti-inflamatory medication, and wear a bite plate or a sports mouth guard. The relief Jean felt because she found she wasn't suffering from some major or incurable problem was itself a major part of the cure, the pain diminished very quickly and disappeared altogether in a few days.