Are your headaches caused by a jaw problem?
Quite often, when a new patient comes into my office in Livermore complaining of chronic headaches they will admit to having clicking and/or pain in their jaw also. Most of these patients are surprised that I ask about their jaw and are usually puzzled when I tell them that the two can be connected. The jaw bone connects into the skull right in front of the ear. The jaw is made up of the bone and a disc of fluid which helps with all the shock absorption required with the hundreds of thousands of times we open and close our jaw.
The amount of stress we put into our jaw increases as we grind our teeth or clench our teeth as stress levels increase. As the force of the jaw joint increases, it also transfers force into the temporal bones of the skull and all the other bones that make up the head. What this equals are HEADACHES!
Part of the treatment process with headache and/or migraine sufferers in my office is to also address the jaw joint and relieve any tension in the joint by stretching it, providing muscle therapy and also re-aligning the joint as often times it is mis-aligned.
A few tips I offer my patients for jaw and head relief are the following:
- Open the jaw as wide as you can and let the muscles stretch
- Open the jaw half way and pull the jaw to the left
- Open the jaw half way and pull the jaw to the right
- Open the jaw straight down to get a final stretch
- Avoid chewing gum and candy
If you have been suffering from chronic headaches and/or migraines, it might be helpful to have your jaw examined by a chiropractor as it might be the culprit.
For more information contact us at info [at] haquechiropractic [dot] com
