@Paige Esry First things first, welcome, Paige! Second, I am going to be selfish here and talk about myself because I cannot believe your experience brought back a stored memory of mine. As soon as I read "airplane," it all came back to me. I remember being terrified to fly for a while because of the ear symptoms I would experience. On the descent, just like you mentioned, it would feel as though my ears were bleeding. While that may sound crazy or dramatic, there is no more accurate way to describe it. The pain was unbearable. It is insane to think that I had completely forgotten about that memory, those symptoms, and never even related them to my jaw journey. I think that's because they were so dismissed at the time, and my ear pressure and hearing tests came back normal as well. So with that, I can say I feel your pain. We present with very similar symptoms, extremely frustrating Eustachian tube and ear symptoms, but very little jaw pain myself. I'm curious why you decided to move your teeth. Do you think you have a narrow palate? You also mentioned being able to breathe through your nose and maintain proper tongue suction, so does your palate not cause any issues within your oral cavity? Is it mainly jaw recession? Either way, I hope the trip to Hawaii was great despite all of that lol. Also, it's very cool to hear you're a speech-language pathologist. I want to look into more research on how jaw structure, nasal structure, tongue ties, and related factors affect the way we speak. I appreciate your detailed message, it helped me nonetheless!

@Paige Esry Of course. Some things I just want to note because we may have gone through similar issues: I am not doubting the TMJ specialist you are working, and we have only sent a couple messages, so I know I don't have the full picture. But I often see people get in trouble when thinking moving the teeth will translate to the jaw moving. Now, if the amount they need to move is very small, and the bite is misaligned anyways, I could see it helping some. In my case, the recessed maxilla is holding back my mandible so the condyles are being pushed into a posterior position as well. Even if I changed my bite to maybe give me a percentage of relief, at what cost would it be if teeth have to tip forward. We want our teeth straight in the bone. This is also causing ear symptoms for myself and condylar resorption. That course sounds awesome. I have forward head posture also because of a small airway, from my recessed jaws (coming into play again). We were also talking about ties under the Structure tab! I had a septoplasty when in reality I needed palate expansion, so its often recomened to do expansion first if someone has to fix their palate. Again, I don't know the full picture, but my whole goal is to save people pain, time, and money that I lost, so just things to be aware of when you talk with medical proeffesionals! You also say "again" Of course! A few things I just want to note because it sounds like we may have gone through some similar issues: I'm not doubting the TMJ specialist you're working with, and we've only exchanged a couple of messages, so I know I don't have the full picture. But I often see people get into trouble when they think moving the teeth will automatically translate to moving the jaws. Now, if the amount they need to move is very small and the bite is already misaligned, I could certainly see it helping in some cases. In my case, my recessed maxilla is holding back my mandible, which contributes to my condyles sitting in a more posterior position. Even if changing my bite gave me some percentage of relief, I have to ask myself: at what cost if the teeth have to tip forward? Ideally, we want our teeth well-supported within the bone. My structure is also contributing to significant ear symptoms and condylar resorption.

@Aleyna H This is one of those questions where I wish there were a simple yes or no answer, but I don't think there is, just like everything in this field. Tongue, lip, and cheek ties can absolutely contribute to dysfunction. They may influence tongue posture, swallowing, speech, oral hygiene, breastfeeding, jaw development, and even breathing in some individuals. But having a tie doesn't automatically mean it's the cause of your symptoms, and simply releasing it doesn't guarantee they'll resolve. From what I've seen and read, and my own experience, a release is often one piece of a much bigger puzzle. If the tongue has never functioned properly, removing the restriction doesn't automatically teach it how to move. That's where myofunctional therapy and learning new movement patterns can become important. Likewise, if someone has a very narrow palate or limited space for the tongue, it makes sense to ask whether releasing the tie alone addresses the underlying issue (my current situation). My own experience, plus a bit of a strange story. I have very tight lip, cheek, and tongue ties. Personally, I think releasing them shortly after birth is far more important than releasing them later in life. If they aren't addressed early, I believe they can play a significant role in development. A doctor once told me that midwives back in the day kept one pinky nail long specifically to cut tongue ties. They would check the baby right away and... well, you get the idea. How true that story is, I'm not sure, but it certainly highlights how important people once believed it was to address them early. My own experience with my last provider was unfortunately not a good one. However, he was very adamant that releasing the ties during expansion was beneficial because the ties acted as opposing forces, constantly pulling everything back into contraction. That explanation actually made sense to me. However, the same doctor also put me in a tooth-borne expander, which I personally don't believe is effective for adult patients.

@Heidi May My cell service is pretty bad this weekend, but this is easy enough to answer! I’d say the books that have helped me the most were: The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz, and When the Body Says No by Gabor Maté. It's hard to pick, so I have many more if those don't land!