Glad to have

Glad to have found you very helpful site and thanks for pointers to bsos.org.uk. For the past 5 months or so I have been experiencing pain that fits more or less exactly with http://www.bsos.org.uk/cycle.html. It seemed to kick off around the start of a very stressful period at work. When I presented with chronic facial pain (cheekbones, bridge of nose, near temples, angle of jaw)as well as stiff shoulders and neck my Doctor referred me to an orthopaedic surgeon who ruled out any problems within his area of specialisation. There is some (painless) crepitus and my jaw devaites to one side on mouth opening. I then turned to an osteopath who produced some improvement and I have just started a course of acupuncture with him. (I understand that treatment is known to produced some alleviation of TMD problems.) Meantime, back to my doctor who arranged blood tests which came back clear, except for an elevated white cell count which he thinks might be suggestive of infection. He prescribed Co-amoxiclav. I have just started taking a one-week course. Seems like a shot in the dark. My mood is now pretty low since the whole experience had ground me down and destroying my quality of life. I have been prescribed a low dose of Amitriptyline(25 mg x 1 daily) which I haven’t yet taken. Although the ache/pain/discomfort is present more or less all of the day I’m still managing to sleep fairly well. The pain usually ‘switches on’ a little while after I wake. I haven’t lost any weight during any of this and – perhaps an odd thing to say – apart from the facial problem I don’t feel there’s anything wrong with me. My lower left 5 and 6 are missing. I have pre-molar crowns on each of my upper quadrants and I wonder if this is contributing to an occulsal problem.
A dentist did a resistance test. With my left arm outstretched horizontally I had to resist the downward pressure from his hand. He had no difficulty in pressing my arm down. He then placed some material between my upper and lower teeth, left side, over the missing teeth and I was able to push back and stop my arm being forced down. No idea whether this is as significant as the dentists believes in diagnosing a TMD problem.
I’m at my wits end in deciding where to turn next. I suspect the next obvious choice is a maxfax surgeon and an MRI scan; but frankly just at the moment I need some resassurance that the symptoms aren’t suggestive of something more serious than TMD.
Any advice on the basis of the above more than welcome.