What Dental Problems Can Cause Headaches?

Do you have dental headaches? Many of those headaches might be due to dental problems like tooth decay or cavities. If you frequently experience inexplicable headaches, get your teeth and jaw examined to rule out any underlying issues that could be contributing to your suffering. Let us read below how headaches and dental problems are related.

Oral Health Issues That Can Lead to a Headache

Headaches can be due to a variety of factors – stress, allergies, exposure to loud noise, bright light, and medical disorders. Another possible explanation for your persistent and debilitating headaches is dental issues. A tooth issue could be the cause of your migraines, eye pain, jaw pain, jaw muscle pain, or regular headaches.

Toothaches

Migraine headaches frequently result from toothaches. It is due to the trigeminal nerve, one of the largest in the skull that helps to detect every toothache or headache. Your face, including your gums and teeth, receives their sensation through this nerve. Migraine headaches might result from a toothache because they can irritate the nerve.

Teeth Grinding

Although teeth grinding may not directly cause headaches, it does result in “referred pain” to your brain. This type of pain broadcasts to a different area than the pain’s origin. For instance, if you grind your teeth, you can have head discomfort instead of jaw pain, which gives the impression of having a headache.

Bad Bites

A faulty bite, one in which your teeth are not properly aligned or in which pressure is unequal because of missing teeth, can result in toothaches and TMJ problems. Both of which can also result in migraines. Regular visits to a dentist near you can help identify these problems before they impact your health.

TMJ

As previously mentioned, TMJ can cause headaches. When a jaw joint and the muscles surrounding it behave improperly, it can cause pain when conducting activities like chewing or opening and closing the mouth.

Bruxism

The medical term for tooth grinding is bruxism. Headaches can be due to clenching your jaw under stress or grinding your teeth as you sleep. You might not even be conscious of your bruxism. The dental professional will see the symptoms and provide a mouth guard to stop you from grinding your teeth.

Referred Pain

A referred pain is when the patient feels pain in an area far off from the area of origin. A headache might be a reaction to an injury or trauma in one section of your body. Tooth or jaw damage can likely cause headaches.

How Do I Know If My Headache is from My Teeth?

One of the oral health issues can result in a dental headache. Muscle tension in the jaw and face can occasionally cause it. It could also be a sign of tooth decay or malocclusion. A bad bite is referred to as malocclusion in layman’s words.

A headache can result from any physical pain. But contrary to popular belief, dental discomfort and headache are intimately associated. It is because the trigeminal nerve (it is the root of many tooth, gum, TMJ, and jaw bone-related problems) is nearby.

Can Poor Dental Health Cause Headaches? If Yes, What to Do?

Because they primarily occur from strain in the jaws, headaches brought on by dental issues are categorized as tension headaches. That tension or pain in the jaw is perceived subsequently as a headache by the nervous system.

The majorities of headaches are minor and disappear on their own, with time, or after using painkillers. Consult dental offices near you if the headache is more severe or if you frequently experience headaches or migraines. The professional can collaborate with you to identify potential causes and make therapy suggestions.

Speak with Our Dentist or Gear Up for a Checkup Today

Like many of our patients, you might be unaware that dental problems can frequently result in headaches. If you experience such an issue, suffering is no longer necessary. It’s might be time to consult an experienced dentist for an evaluation if your general practitioner cannot identify the cause of your headaches. Call our helpful dental staff to schedule an appointment at Bella via Dental at a time that works for you.