Frequent Headaches? Can’t Sleep? Check your Bite  

One in eight Americans suffer from headache.*

     An average person swallows 2,000 times per day, causing the upper and lower teeth to come together and push against the skull.*   People who have a poorly aligned bite or missing teeth can have related health problems, such as frequent headaches or sleep disorders, because their jaw muscles must work harder to bring the teeth together, straining the surrounding jaw muscles.

    This strain, know as orofacial pain is defined as any pain in or around the face.  Some people may experience pain in the ears, eyes, sinuses, cheeks or side of the head, while others experience clicking when moving the jaw.  These symptoms may be your mouth's warning signs for more serious health risks. 

   At the first sign of discomfort, see your dentist.  He knows your mouth best and how you handle day-to-day stress.  Sometimes the pain may be difficult to diagnose if its origin is not localized in one area.

    We will try to diagnose the pain source by conducting test to rule out a cracked tooth, the need for root canal, gum disease, clenching or tooth grinding.  These factors can cause discomfort in the facial region, but can be easily addressed.

    Orofacial pain that lasts longer than 10 days to two weeks or it not related to a specific stressful even, such as a car accident, may signal a more serious problem requiring additional test.

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Headache Impact Test-click here to take Headache Impact Test

Find the results to this test at: Headache Test Results

Does your mouth cause you pain?  Look for these signs:

Headaches and toothaches left untreated can interfere with 
eating, talking and swallowing.

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Try This Exercise To Understand How the NTI Works

This simple experiment shows how the NTI works.

Remember how the temporalis muscles bulged when you clenched your teeth?

Now, put a pencil between your upper and lower front teeth and bite down. The temporalis muscles don't bulge.

This simple experiment demonstrates how an NTI (in place of the pencil) prevents migraines and clenching related to head pain.

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Treatment

This treatment involves NO drugs, surgery, medication, shots or side effects.  It reduces clenching intensity up to 66%. Because the NTI eliminates clenching, it prevents or reduces:
 

The NTI is therefore also a great diagnostic tool.  If no relief had been gained or things got worse, then there is probably pathology in the joint itself

NTI Tension Suppression Device

The NTI device is a pre-fabricated matrix that is retro-fitted and customized to your front teeth.

Through using this treatment chronic, intense nighttime muscular parafunction has been shown to be a considerable influence on the triggering of migraine events.  In clinical trials, 82% of medically diagnosed migraine patients had a 77% reduction in migraine episodes within the first eight weeks of use. There is a 10-15% chance it may not work

*Dentalnotes, pg 4,  Spring 2002 AGD

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How do I know if my bite is incorrect?

The human body is an amazing thing.  Our bodies try to tell us when something is wrong.  Sometimes the communication can be immediate and precise.  On other occasions the body tries to tell us that something is out of balance but we can’t understand the clues we’re being sent.   

Bite problems can fall into either category.  An unbalanced bite can cause hard-to-ignore problems like muscle tension headaches.   Some bite problems cause problems that may be just as serious but are not as easy to spot, such as 

Here’s a good analogy;  you could have a fine car with  top-quality tires.  If the wheels are out of alignment you might not be aware of the problem until your mechanic shows you that the tires have severely uneven wear.  The problem is something you can’t feel, but it affects your car in a way that can be damaging or even dangerous. 

How can you tell if your bite is unbalanced if you may not be able to feel that anything is wrong?  A thorough dental exam can spot uneven tooth wear,  sore head and neck muscles,  broken teeth or cracked fillings before such problems become catastrophic.    

Of the 46 percent of women and 38 percent of men who regularly suffer from tension headaches, many may not realize the source of head pain may be directly linked to the mouth. Rather than reaching for a bottle of painkillers, people who suffer from tension headaches should consider reaching for their phone and calling their dentist. Tension headache sufferers often blame headaches on a stressful day or a bad night's sleep but when the headaches consistently keep coming back, dentists can help investigate the real source of the pain to determine a diagnosis. A dentist can look in a patient's mouth and tell by how the jaw is positioned or by how the teeth are aligned whether or not the mouth may be the source of the pain. Nearly two-thirds of tension headache sufferers clench or grind their teeth, which is known to trigger a headache. The size, position and movement of the jaw muscles also is a factor, which is why 70 percent of Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD) patients complain of this problem. Although the medical community has a role in helping patients identify and cure headache pain, the dentist's office should be their first stop on the way to becoming headache-free.  09/03

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NTI In The Media

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Headache Prevention

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