TMJD Symptom Series, Part 3: Head, Headaches and Face Pain
Here are 6 TMJD symptoms that are associated with head, headache and face pain:
1. Hair and/or scalp painful to touch
Whether moving your fingers through your hair, taking a hat on or off, or simply shifting your head weight across a pillow, when your hair and/or scalp is sensitive to movement, this may indicate a good time to visit a TMJ massage therapist. The nerve endings that end to the layer over your skull, it’s possible they are being pinched along your jaw.
2. Temporal and Forehead Pain
While you may not be able to see or feel these muscles as you can a bicep or hamstring, there are very strong but thin muscles found along backside of your ear, the temporalis muscle, as well as across your forehead, including the frontalis, corrugator, orbicularis and procerus muscles. These muscles are powered by the trigeminal nerve which breaks into three separate nerves: the ophthalmic, maxillary and mandibular nerves. It’s the ophthalmic nerve that extends from the top of your head all the way down to the tip of your nose. Overuse can cause this nerve to be inflamed, hence the paid felt across your forehead.
3. Sinus headache under the eyes
Often the result of a sinus infection, sinus headaches can be caused from pressure felt across the brow bone, over the bridge of your nose and down along the front and center of your cheekbones. These are your frontal, ethmoid, sphenoid and maxillary sinuses.
4. Cluster-type headaches
Cluster headaches are characterized by pain experienced in and around one eye. This pain can be felt as a long, slow throb or a pounding sensation. Face pain around the eyes can be due to the muscles being strained from overwork, staring at a computer screen too long or poor vision correction. You may notice a drooping of the lid, tearing and/or congestion in the eye experiencing pain
5. Migraine type headaches
Migraines are headaches that tend to happen repeatedly. If you are experiencing a migraine-type headache, it’s likely that you feel nauseous, are sensitive to light and sound, and feel varying intensities of pain. Flashes of light, face pain, nausea and visual or sensory abnormality changes are typical side effects of migraine-type headaches. If left untreated, severe pain may follow.
6. Back of head headaches, with or without shooting pains
Otherwise called “neck headaches” these pains can be found on the top of the head or the very back. It’s likely these pains are due to injury, tight muscles that have entrapped nerves or inflammation.
Living with any kind of these pains in your head or across your face isn’t normal – and it’s not something you should deal with longer than necessary. Schedule n conversation with Dominick and learn how you can lessen your pain and get back to normal.
Next up in our TMJD Symptom Series: Eye Pain and Eye Problems
