Nagging Headache Often Linked To Dental Pain

Many headache sufferers might want to consult their dentist as well as their doctor since headaches and dental pain have a lot in common.That nagging headache and painful jaw may be tied to your oral health.

Headaches and toothaches all transmit through the trigeminal nerve, the largest sensory nerve in the head that supplies the external face, scalp, jaw, teeth and much of the intra-oral structures. Pain in one branch of the nerve has the potential to activate other branches of the nerve, and when that pain is chronic and sustained, it is more likely to trigger a sequence of events that might lead to a headache. In people who have headaches, a continuous, sustained toothache can easily trigger one of the episodic headaches such as migraines.

Besides the close anatomical links between head, face and jaw pain, reflexive behaviors caused by pain and tension such as jaw clenching and muscle tightening can exacerbate and transfer pain.There is a good deal of interconnectivity between the orofacial and craniocervical systems; for example, when you clench your teeth you contract your neck muscles inadvertently. So next time you have a headache you might want to think about going to the dentist.

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