Chronic symptoms of the head and neck can often be attributed to:
• Headache -- the temporalis muscle (it closes and clenches the jaw)
• Sinus pressure and pain -- the lateral pterygoid muscles (it moves the jaw side to side and/or forward)
• Neck stiffness and pain -- trapezius muscle (it stabilizes the skull during jaw clenching and grinding)
Dental offices treat and help people with headache problems. For years, we assigned many names to headaches; muscle tension headaches, neuralgia, migraine, etc. Headache patients seem to share one very common dental trait – they clench or grind their teeth at night! Most medical research has shown that even people with classical migraine headaches, have no physical reason, no vascular problems and no neurological problems. Physician exams frequently yield no physical reason for the pain. Patients often report having CAT scans and MRI that were negative. They find drugs don't adequately help or resolve their problem. On the contrary, they feel the medication can make them groggy and "drugged out."
Dentist and dental researchers have discovered that people who can control their nighttime clenching and grinding will get noticeable relief for their headaches and neck aches. Many people do so much unconscious clenching of their jaw muscles, that when they wake up, their teeth are sore, their muscles are already tired, and they are being set up for a duesy of a headache (assuming they didn't wake up with one).
A traditional dental mouthguard appliance (or orthotic, splint), reduces the pounding on the up and down and grinding of the side to side movements by re-distributing the direct force. The resultant strain to the jaw joint and sinuses is reduced (so long as clenching intensity isn't too intense). However, the same dental splint also provides an ideal clenching surface, where maximum clenching intensity may increase and/or allow jaw joint problems to perpetuate.
For a complete list of our dental services, refer to out Patient Services Page on the website: http://www.themanhattandentist.com/patient_services.php
For a list of the six symptoms from TemperoMandibular Joint Dysfunction (TMD), please check out the Office News page of the website: http://www.themanhattandentist.com/officenews.php .
Many patients run the gamut of the medical world's attempts to control their headaches- multiple drugs, injections, and so on; before learning that the pain might be muscular or dental in origin. But just as back pain is often caused by a muscle spasm, the pain we call TMD or TMJ (TemperoMandibular Joint), as well as headaches of many sorts are very much caused by overuse of the muscles of closing the jaws.
We would recommend that if you or a loved one has chronic headache problems, that you contact us and let us take a look. Elliot Davis, DDS
80 5th Ave. Suite #1607
New York, NY 10011
(212) 645-9255
TheManhattanDentist@gmail.com
http://www.themanhattandentist.com
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