My 12-year-old daughter had been complaining of severe jaw pain almost every day. She had stopped eating normally, and often woke up in the middle of the night, holding her jaw and quietly crying so no one would hear.
I watched her struggle to chew, noticing how carefully she moved her mouth and how she would cradle her cheek when she thought I wasn’t looking.
At first, my husband brushed it off. He said it was normal, that it was just part of growing up, and that it would get better with time. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was seriously wrong.
Continue reading on next page…