20 Jul The Surprising Possible Reason for Your Headaches
Headaches
Many Americans suffer from headaches. Experts have found that the majority of headaches that occur are actually due to muscle tension. For example, if you are unknowingly or knowingly clenching your jaw muscles, this could lead to severe pain in your temporal region.
Clenching of this nature can also result in general pain of the face, neck or mouth. Toothaches can be especially severe if you’re not only clenching but also grinding your teeth. Clenching and grinding often take place when you are sleeping.
Clenching, grinding of the teeth and muscle tension causing these types of pain can be signs of TMD, or temporomandibular disorder. TMD can occur because of problems with the actual temporomandibular joint or the muscles in that area, and the disorder affects more than 15 percent of adults nationwide.
Tmj.org lists several TMD sufferer accounts. Temporomandibular disorder can have severe effects on many areas of your life, including eating or getting good quality sleep. Take Amy, for instance:
My good days consisted of eating a lot of pasta with well-cooked vegetables and no meat because the meat was too hard to chew. On bad days, I couldn’t eat anything solid without pain and had a headache that debilitated me for the rest of the day.
If this sounds familiar to you, the pain does not have to continue. There are many solutions to TMD, from splint therapy all the way to surgery in more serious cases.
If you are experiencing issues with sleep, contact us today for more information. We want to help alleviate your pain and restore your quality of life.