Can TMD be the Explanation for Most Common Headaches?

According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website “a headache is pain or discomfort in the head or face.  Headaches vary greatly in terms of the location and intensity of the pain, and how often the headaches occur.  The brain tissue doesn’t have pain sensitive nerve fibers and doesn’t feel pain.  But, other parts of the head can be responsible for headache including:

– A network of nerves that extends to the scalp

– Certain nerves of the face, mouth, and throat

– Muscles of the head, neck, and shoulders”

Tension headaches, migraine headaches, and cluster headaches are the three descriptive types that together make up more than 90% of all headaches  considered primary headaches.

According to the British Journal of Pain, “around 95% of the general population have experienced headache at some stage in their life with a 1-year prevalence of nearly one in two adults.  Headache accounts for 1 in 10 general practitioner (GP) consultations, 1 in 3 Neurology referrals, and 1 in 5 of all acute medical admissions.  The World Health Organization includes headaches among the top 10 causes of disability and among the top 5 in women.”

Tension headache is the most common type of headache, and as the name suggests are associated with tension, anxiety, and stress.

Migraine headache is differentiated from other types of because of their occurrence simultaneously with vision disturbances and occasionally nausea and vomiting.  In the general population, really severe, debilitating and/or long-lasting headache is considered an “Migraine”.

Cluster Headaches occur in a series lasting weeks or months and associated with swelling of the eyelid, runny nose or congestion and swelling of the forehead.

There are lots of theories about what causes these three primary types of headaches.  The scientific studies on tension headaches can only affirm this category of headache is related to tension, anxiety, and stress, but cannot describe how these three factors make the head hurt.  Scientific studies on migraine headaches admit there is no proven cause for migraines. .  Similarly, scientific studies cannot prove the cause of cluster headaches. Association of symptoms does not prove cause, and descriptive terms placing headache in a specific category does nothing to prove cause.

But medical doctors happily and consistently place headaches in descriptive categories hoping that patients are satisfied to know what category of headache they suffer without actually knowing the cause.

On the other hand, science has proven that overuse and abuse of the temporomandibular joint associated with clenching and grinding of the teeth associated with stress and anxiety creates damage and chronic inflammation within the joint.  Furthermore, it is scientifically proven that chronic inflammation within any joint of the body, including the temporomandibular joint, creates a neural signal originating in the brain stem causing muscles that move the joint to tighten, which in turn causes pain where these muscles attach to the bone.  TMD/TMJ is the same disease as tennis elbow.

The well-known, well-established symptoms of TMD mimic the symptoms of tension, migraine, and cluster headaches, causing millions of primary headaches to be misdiagnosed by medical professionals.  We have seen thousands of patients diagnosed with tension, migraine, and cluster headaches treated with a wide range of pharmaceutical remedies, whose pain subsides when the inflammation within the TMJ is diminished.

Is it possible that TMD is the explanation for most common headaches?  The answer is yes, based on our observation of over 4000 cases.

It is more striking to read that the medical literature never/ever mentions TMD/TMJ as one of the possible causes of primary headaches.

Armed with this knowledge, you may want to question whether your headaches have been misdiagnosed and are actually caused by inflammation of the TMJ.

Our team at TMJ Services stands ready to diagnose and treat TMD/TMJ when you are ready to schedule a consultation.