Anmol Agarwal*
Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies, Modinagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
*Corresponding Author: Anmol Agarwal, Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies, Modinagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Received: June 08, 2021; Published: August 01, 2021
Majority of people suffer from headache due to varied reasons, either known or unknown. Based on the aetiology over 200 types of headaches have been reported in the literature but ‘myogenous headache’ or the headache originating from the muscles, remained unlearnt and unexplored. Physiologically, head and neck muscles, jaws and the teeth function in harmony and contribute in mastication, posture and airway maintenance. In case of disharmony, each structure tries to compensate for other. If the triad fails, next level in the posture chain takes it up and this continues from head to toe or vice versa, what we call as descending or ascending postural issues. ‘The Temporomandibular Joints’ (TMJ) located either side of the skull, allows the mandible to occlude with the upper jaw with the sole stop point ‘teeth’. Pain associated with the derangement of these joints can radiate to the head neck region involving face, cervical area and even shoulders. On contrary, TMJ arthralgia often result due to improper alignments of the teeth (crooked teeth) or the jaws, grinding of teeth associated with snoring (sleep apnea) or sleep disorders and missing teeth which in turn can present as headache, neck pain or jaw aches. Put together such painful condition is recently termed as ‘Cranio-Cervical-Mandibular Disorder’ (CCMD). Unexplained headaches accompanied with sharp ear ache, clicking and popping sensations in the ear region while opening or closing the mouth, strong pain while yawning or open the mouth wide, TMJ dislocation leading to jaw lock are some common features of CCMD.
Citation: Anmol Agarwal. “The Headache Tale: An Unknown Link between the Head and Neck Muscles, Jaws and the Teeth".Acta Scientific Otolaryngology 3.9 (2021): 01.
Copyright: © 2021 Anmol Agarwal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.