Rhymes with Christmas, but is anything but a gift! (And is very different than TMJ or LockJaw although they are sometimes called trismus.)
I had never thought about how wide I could open my mouth before cancer. I took bites of big juicy hamburgers, opened wide for that delicious cream puff and never thought about it; because I, like most people could open my mouth about 2”. (Open your mouth – you can probably put 2 or 3 fingers in without difficulty.)
After surgery and radiation, and the cancer recurrence, my mouth opening is about 10 mm – which means I am not able to eat much solid food unless it’s been mashed down. It’s horrible and frustrating and so depressing. And aside from the significant issue of not being able to eat, the other issues are pain, the inability for dentists, drs, etc to use instruments inside the mouth to view the oral cavity, etc., problems with oral hygiene (can’t use a toothbrush), etc.
Severe trismus is extremely difficult to treat, and even with regular “physio” you will probably never get back to normal mouth opening.
Before my trismus became severe, I used the “Therabite” system which has had some of the best results, but only when used consistently (7 times a day forever), and even then the results are very slow – maybe 3-4 mm a month. Generally, the best results people have are an increase of 10 mm overall, and if you stop using it at any point in the future, the mouth opening will begin to decrease again.
I am not using the Therabite now, since the return of cancer significantly decreased my mouth opening, and it would be detrimental to continue using it. I’ll start again after this surgery. I won’t ever eat “normally” again, but I hope to enjoy being able to eat regular food in very small bites.