Headache & Migraine Treatments
Many people do not realise that modern dentistry can often give an answer to reduce or get rid of regular tension headaches and certain migraines.
Clenching or grinding our teeth is called bruxism and many people do this often without even realising. Clenchers may not even show the wear on their teeth that grinders usually have! These continuous excessive forces (called parafunction because these are excessive forces greater and longer than those we generate just eating foodstuffs) are sometimes combined with a dysfunction in the temperomandibular joint (TMJ) (the ball and socket joint that keeps our lower jaw working agains the upper jaw).
These parafunctional activities, which cannot be consciously controlled, can lead to many headaches and facial and head pains or pains in the TMJ (feels like earache). It is also recognised that this muscular activity may trigger many types of migraines (spasm in the blood supply to the brain).
If you have regular headaches, facial pain, TMJ pain or migraines you should ask one of our dentists about the choice of appliances currently available to try to treat your problem.
If you have excessive wear on your teeth this can be reduced or stopped from getting worse in the future by wearing a simple appliance every night while you are asleep and you should definitely consider wearing a protective appliance every night.