It happens every year, especially around the holidays. These days, it’s happening more and more.
What am I referring to? Well, the numbers of people with headaches and jaw pain that I see in my practice almost daily. Why is that?
To answer that with a single answer, such as “stress” would be too simplistic, but it’s not far from the truth. The number of people who are clenching their teeth and tightening their neck, upper back, and shoulder muscles is increasing. In fact, I would dare say that there are few adults I see that don’t experience some negative consequences from clenching or grinding the teeth, which is called bruxism, whether it’s from broken teeth and dental restorations
Unfortunately, no one has found the “magic bullet” to stop bruxism and its associated problems, so we’re left looking at various ways to alleviate the pain and discomfort associated with bruxism.
There are generally three types of headaches: tension, migraine, and “other”. Tension headaches account for 90 out of every 100 headaches, making it by far the most common headache. Many – if not most – people I see have these type headaches. Migraine (and migraine-variant) headaches account for about 8 out of every 100 headaches and have typically been associated with the term “vascular headache”, but new research is refuting this, showing the cascade of effects that cause migraine headaches actually start with tension headaches. (See www.nti-tss.com). The other 2 out of 100 account for cysts, tumors, cancers, and other rare problems as the cause for headache and jaw pain, which although are uncommon, should always be ruled out.
Over a decade ago, I became frustrated with my inability to help people with headache and jaw pain, despite working with over a dozen different treatment modalities. The problem was I couldn’t predict who I could help – or who I was going to make worse! And that was unacceptable to me.
So I embarked on a journey to educate myself even more than the vast ajority of my colleagues had, and ended up having a conversation with Dr. Jim Boyd in California. He, too, related his experiences which correlated with mine, and he told me he had developed a treatent modality that was more-than-encouraging. See for yourself on the website I mentioned above.
Well over a decade later, we can now help more people than ever with headache and jaw pain, and I encourage you to not suffer anymore!