Headaches and your mouth

If chronic headaches are keeping you from living your best life, there’s a chance your teeth could be to blame! Research has shown that some common dental issues such as bad bite, teeth grinding, Bruxism, and tooth decay can all lead to headaches.

Here is a closer look at each of these things and a few of the warning signs.

Bad Bite: This occurs when teeth are loose, missing, or misaligned requiring jaw muscles to work harder than normal.

Bruxism: The formal name for grinding or clenching your teeth –– this often occurs when sleeping or when we are stressed. Unfortunately, many of us don’t even realize we are doing it until we start to experience jaw pain, which then leads to a headache. Bruxism can also result in flattened, sensitive, or chipped teeth and damaged dental work.

Tooth Decay: While many people will think they have a headache, what they actually have is an oral infection, which can only be identified and treated by a dentist.

If you are experiencing headaches and think it could be from one of the above causes, give us a call today at 573-243-5200 to schedule an appointment so we can help either correct the problem or in the case of an oral infection, treat it effectively. Not only will ignoring the problem, not make it go away, it could also lead to more costly and invasive treatments down the road.