Quite A Painful Day

Big big flurry of people

If one is ever in a rush, one should avoid Bedok Interchange for the risk of a Pasar Malam like this. At the narrow passageway between the interchange and the MRT station, it got so congested that it took me about 3 minutes to cover the short distance of 50 metres.

People [read: whole family] stopping in the middle of the already jammed up walkway to marvel at the Turkish ice-cream vendor's tricks played on the customer. People crowding around makeshift watch stall to admire the magic that $10 can create in a watch.

Resulting in the big jam and slow movement of the traffic.

Sometimes it would be nice to just slow down one's footsteps, follow them and just myself be absorbed into the buzz of the market. Not today though I am in a rush [not exactly a rush just that I was to meet my friends at about noon and it is already near 6pm].

These markets are already a big part of life in Singapore as depicted in "The Street Of the Small Night Market"[that little blue book that we all CCHSM people read in Sec 2 for English]. Its nice to have them around, but recently there is a trend for stalls to sell these handphone accessories that screams "LOOK AT ME" all over.

A close look [check] at myself shows that my left ear and left jaw joint together give me some "popping" trouble. Self-diagnosis [using this] shows that I might have TemporoMandibular Joint Syndrome.
Primary symptoms

• Poorly localized dull jaw pain (80%)
• Increased pain with chewing
• Limitation of mouth opening
• Ear clicking or popping

Secondary symptoms

• Earache (30%)
• Headache and/or neck ache
• Typically unilateral pain
• Increasing pain over the course of the day
• History of jaw and/or facial trauma
• Bruxism, teeth clenching
• Psychiatric history (30%)
• Dizziness (20%)

Physical

• Limitation of jaw opening (normal range is at least 40 mm as measured from lower to upper anterior teeth)
• Palpable spasm of facial muscles (masseter and internal pterygoid muscles)
• Tenderness to palpation (80%)
• Clicking or popping in the TMJ
• Tenderness to palpation of the TMJ via the external auditory meatus
• Crepitus over joint (in advanced disease)
• Lateral deviation of mandible

Causes

• MPD syndrome is believed to be a stress-related disorder.
• Centrally induced increase in mandibular muscle tension in tandem with teeth grinding and/or clenching results in muscle spasm, pain, and dysfunction.
• Internal derangement is caused by an organic problem within the TMJ.
• Mandibular muscle spasm observed in this entity is in response to the dysfunction.
• Spasm is not the primary problem as with MPD

Quite irritating to have your ear go "pop" whenever you open your mouth more than normal! On the bright side, at least I save my hearing from what I thought was an impeding ear infection [from the earache].

Later!
Breaking Benjamin-Rain