Headaches on the side of your head over your temples can be caused by a bad dental bite. The pain can be on one side or both and it is very often misdiagnosed as a migraine headache because TMJ Dysfunction headaches like migraine headaches can run in families. A very high percentage of patients with TMJ Dysfunction headaches are women and it can be especially painful right before menstruation. Because of the grinding commonly associated with TMJ headaches, teeth can become sensitive to hot and cold and may even notch the teeth at the gum lines due to the stress placed upon them from grinding. These notches are often mistaken for brushing too hard. In severe cases the grinding can result in teeth becoming loose. The constant grinding or clenching also causes the chewing muscles to become tender and sore to the touch. The soreness makes the muscles shorten which can result in limited opening of the mouth. In other words, the patient can't easily open to bite a sandwich and a lot of chewing can wear the patient out.
A patient can have a grooved (scalloped) tongue due to the patient strongly pushing their tongue into the back sides of their teeth. With time a patient's teeth may begin wearing so that wear facets that look like diamond cuts can be seen. Sometimes a patient's jaw joints pop or click or even cause the jaw to get locked out of place. At times there will be ringing in the ears or even ear pain. It is not uncommon for TMJ headache patients to tell us that their family physician referred them to an Ear, Nose, and Throat MD because of their ear pain associated with their headaches.
The body tries to protect an injured area so that a TMJ headache patient may hold their head unusually. This can result in some type of neck aches and other types of postural problems. It is very common to see a forward head posture in patients with head and neck pain and these positional irregularities can result in a tingling or coldness at the tips of a patient's fingers.
Often these symptoms all combine to irritate the patient enough so that he or she doesn't sleep well. However, a patient can have "all" or just "some" of the signs and symptoms mentioned above.
To treat any problem you must first know what is causing the problem otherwise something other than the cause can be treated. TMJ headache patients present with many different types of problems so that each patient is different. Generally however, we first treat the muscle pain using a removable dental appliance and nutritional program developed by Dr. Padolsky and aimed at reducing muscle dysfunction. Most patients are helped within six (6) weeks.
You are welcome to make a TMJ headache consultation but be sure to schedule it with Dr. Padolsky and let our Appointment Manager know it is related to your TMJ headches.