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Why Tell Your Dentist About Headaches?
If you have headaches on a regular basis, it is a good idea to tell your dentist about them. Depending upon the type of headache, their frequency, and their severity, there are a variety of medical reasons that this can be important information for your dentist. But most importantly, your headaches may be caused by an abnormal bite, and if so, your dentist can treat them more effectively than anyone else.
A headache is just one symptom that may be attributable to poor occlusion (or a bad bite). Other symptoms such as pain or noise in the jaw joint, facial pain, sensitive teeth, difficulty chewing, and neck pain may also be related to your occlusion, and should be discussed with your dentist.
Headaches are generally classified into several basic types: Sinus, Cluster, Tension and Migraine. You can determine which type you have by discussing it with your dentist. While headaches are typically treated by your physician, improper occlusion (your bite) may play a significant role in certain types of headaches as well as other head and neck pain.
Headaches and Your Bite
The muscles of the temple and the forehead play an important part in the posturing and closing of the jaw. If your occlusion (bite) is not optimal, it can lead to abnormal tensions in these muscles – one of the several possible causes of tension type headaches.
If the bite is not corrected, the muscles may remain tense for long periods of time. The contracted muscles do not get an opportunity to rest and soon suffer from poor circulation – thus, a lack of needed oxygen and the accumulation of waste products occurs. The end result can be pain (headaches).
Determining If Your Bite Is The Cause
New technology now allows your dentist to objectively evaluate the state of these muscles and various other factors that may be affecting your bite. Based on this and other information obtained from physical examination, your dentist can determine if your bite is a possible cause of headaches with a high degree of confidence.
Treatment
If the indications are that your bite is a major factor, your dentist may recommend provisional or interim treatment. This involves fabrication of a custom made orthotic. An orthotic is a plastic appliance that is worn over or fixed to your teeth to adjust your bite to a correct relationship.
At this point, nothing permanent is done to alter your teeth or your bite. Patients typically wear this appliance for a period of time to ensure the new bite position is correct before any consideration would be given to permanently altering your bite.
After having worn the provisional appliance for some time, both you and your dentist will know for sure if the new bite position has resolved the headache problem. If it has, you will have several options open to you for long-term treatment. Some of these options may include dental treatment to permanently alter your bite to the new position, fabrication of a more permanent type of orthotic, or using a TENS device to relax the muscles at those times that headaches are most bothersome.