A mother who takes 50 tablets a day and can barely eat fears the NHS is “leaving her to die”. Naomi Smith, 48, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, has lived with severe jaw pain for almost 30 years and says her condition has left her with “no quality of life”. The mum-of-four can only open her mouth 14mm wide—too little to fit a 5p coin—and relies heavily on a liquid diet.
Decades of Pain and Delayed Diagnosis
Naomi says the pain began when she was 18 and gradually became “unbearable”, but it took until 2025 for her to be diagnosed with temporomandibular joint disorder, condylar damage and severe arthritis in her jaw. She said: “I don’t feel like myself - I look skeletal, I just look ill. I’ve been in constant pain for 30 years. It’s like the NHS wants to leave me to die.”
By 2014, Naomi said she could barely eat or drink and had become “weak and exhausted” as the pain spread through her body. She claims she lost three stone in a matter of months, vomited up to 30 times a day and developed severe constipation from pain medication. From 2015, she was referred to several hospital departments and was told she may have conditions including a functional bowel disorder, fibromyalgia or osteoarthritis, but her health continued to deteriorate despite “endless” appointments.
Hospital Admission and Setbacks
In April 2019, Naomi said she was admitted to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital with a bowel blockage and malnutrition, which she believes were linked to her liquid diet and long-term use of painkillers. While there, she claims a member of medical staff told her she was a “hysterical female” and that her symptoms were “all in (her) head”. Naomi said: “I kept thinking they (doctors) had the answer, and then they’d tell me I wasn’t feeling what I was feeling.”
By 2020, she says she had become “so weak” she could barely lift a shopping basket. Her symptoms eventually forced her to leave her job as a children’s social, emotional and mental health tutor in 2024. She said: “It just got impossible. I’m absolutely devastated - if you’re not contributing to society, it just makes you feel invisible and sad.”
Ongoing Struggles and Fundraising Effort
She has spent thousands of pounds on private treatments, including Botox, chiropractic care, osteopathy, healing sessions and acupuncture, without finding lasting relief. Naomi now lives with constant facial pain, migraines, dizziness and nausea. The left side of her face begins to droop by early afternoon, making it difficult to speak, while she also experiences hearing loss in her left ear and occasional vision loss caused by ocular migraines. She said: “I have no quality of life and every day I wake up with extreme pain.”
After finally receiving her jaw diagnosis in 2025, Naomi said a doctor at Cheltenham General Hospital concluded she had “probably had temporomandibular joint disorder all her life”, adding that it can be difficult to diagnose. She was told the condition may have contributed to years of wider pain and health problems.
Despite the diagnosis, Naomi said she is still waiting to be added to an NHS surgery list for an arthroscopy and has been warned the wait could be as long as four years. But since speaking publicly about her condition in November 2025, appointments “suddenly” began coming through, including one to discuss surgery in September 2026. An NHS Botox appointment also “suddenly” came through in November 2025 and temporarily helped, but Naomi says several follow-up appointments were later cancelled. She said: “They promised they’d help me but have done nothing since. Sometimes I think if the universe wants me to live, someone will step in and something will change, but it feels like the NHS don’t care. In total I think I’ve had around 30 appointments cancelled over the last few months.”
Impact on Health and Family
Naomi said she eventually received nerve-blocking injections in her spine in June 2026 in an attempt to ease the wider pain, but says the relief lasted only a matter of days. She has lost dexterity in her fingers and can no longer raise her arms above her head, while continuing to rely on around 50 tablets each day. The impact has also spread to her family life. Naomi lives with her son and says her children are “always worried about” her. She said: “We all used to think that doctors can fix things, but now I don’t think they can, or just won’t.”
Naomi is now hoping to raise £95,000 for a private bilateral jaw replacement, which would involve replacing the joints between her lower jaw and the base of her skull. She has launched a GoFundMe to cover the cost. She said: “It wouldn’t make the pain in my whole body go away, but it’d mean I could finally eat and chew again, and it would mean the world to me.”
A spokesperson from Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are sorry to hear that Ms Smith continues to experience ongoing pain and the impact this is having on her quality of life. Ms Smith’s case continues to be taken seriously and she remains under the care of our clinical teams. She has been seen by a number of consultants and has undergone investigations as part of ongoing efforts to better understand and address her symptoms of what is a complex clinical picture. We are aware that Ms Smith has raised concerns about aspects of her care. We continue to investigate the issues raised through our formal complaints process and will continue to work with Ms Smith to address her concerns.”
