Migraines and TMD Headaches

Many people who have TMD without knowing it mistake their TMD headaches for migraines. Many will visit their doctor looking for pain relief and be given a medication. A painkiller, no matter how strong it is, addresses the pain but not the cause of the pain.

Some headache sufferers visit a series of physicians, take a series of medications, and find themselves exactly where they started – suffering from recurring and severe headaches. This may continue for many years and cause secondary symptoms such as depression.

What causes migraines?

Different people experience different changes or events before their migraine develops. Those changes and events are called triggers but they may or may not be causative — they may just signal the oncoming pain. Examples are:

• Sensory experiences such as bright lights, loud noises and some odors

• Missing a meal

• Losing sleep

• Use of alcohol

• Assorted foods such as nuts, chocolate, bananas, onions, pickles, or avocado

• Hormonal fluctuations in some women

• Stress at work or at home

We feel pain when a sensory nerve carries a pain message to the brain. Migraines are felt when certain nerves in the head, face, or neck carry such a message. Specifically, they are four of the cranial nerves – large nerves which run from the brainstem (base of the brain) rather than from the spinal cord. They are the trigeminal, facial, vagus, and hypoglossal nerves, all with many branches.

Migraines have associated symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and vision problems, all related to the branches of the four nerves. They can be a throbbing or pulsing pain on either side of the head.

Migraines are treated with drugs

Some are designed to relieve the pain after it has started and others are designed to prevent it from starting although they are only partially effective and all have serious side effects. Some address nausea. Whichever drugs your physician prescribes for you must be taken indefinitely as they do not cure whatever is causing your migraines – they simply reduce the pain and symptoms.

What causes TMD headaches?

TMD headaches have a dental cause. The pain of TMD headaches is transmitted to the brain by any of the same four nerves that register migraine pain. But the cause of the pain can be diagnosed definitively and treated effectively by a qualified neuromuscular dentist. The cause is misalignment in one or both jaw joints.

When you have misaligned jaw joints, the jaw muscles become chronically strained by trying to open and close the mouth correctly but failing to do so. Many TMD sufferers develop jaw clenching or teeth grinding habits which worsen the problem by increasing strain and causing damage to teeth.

When you think of how many times each day we work our jaw for speaking, yawning, chewing, laughing etc., you can get an idea of just how stressed and strained the jaw muscles can become over the months and years. The nerves running through the jaw, face, throat, and head become compressed by muscle inflammation and register pain.

A Cure for TMD Headaches

Dr. So has neuromuscular dentistry training from the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies (LVI), and the technology and skill to pinpoint how your jaw joint(s) may be out of alignment, why, and how to correct that.

Each case of TMD is unique, with its own combination of TMD symptoms. Dr. So will assess the degree and nature of your jaw joint misalignment and associated bite misalignment and will discuss with you the options for treating it. Please see our pages on TMD and neuromuscular dentistry for more on symptoms and treatment.

If you would like to schedule a personal consultation with Dr. So to learn more about TMD and whether you might be suffering from it, please call or email us today.