Since the nerves of the teeth and eyes are connected together, you may experience a toothache causing headache and eye pain. In fact, there are many reasons to experience this condition. However, know that tooth pain and head pain may be due to an underlying health problem like TMJ disorder or sinus infection. So, to find out your accurate diagnosis, book an appointment with your dentist or visit your doctor. Only a healthcare professional is qualified to run a necessary test to analyze and identify the underlying cause of your symptoms. This article will continue to explore the possible connections between headaches and toothache.
Tooth Pain Triggering a Migraine
There are numerous potential reasons why a tooth may hurt, including cavities, broken teeth, or impacted wisdom teeth. If you neglect these conditions, you may also develop a headache or a migraine.
Migraines are throbbing, generally, one-sided headaches that can accompany vomiting, nausea, or sensitivity to light or sound.
Specialists believe that the relationship between migraines and toothaches is the trigeminal nerve. This cranial nerve controls eye and facial movements and sensations. In fact, this gives a feeling to the greater part of your face, including your teeth, gums, and upper and lower lip.
In addition, specialists also believe that the trigeminal nerve plays a vital role in developing headaches and migraines. For this situation, pain from the toothache is thought to disturb the nerve and cause a migraine.
Common Dental Problems That Can Result in Headache and Eye Pain
Tooth Decay
Tooth decay is one of the common dental problems that can cause a headache or eye pain. This issue can make you think that you are suffering from a headache instead of tooth decay. Hence, whenever you are experiencing an endless migraine or eye pain, you can visit this website to have a dentist check your mouth first.
Bad Bite
Bad bite refers to loose, missing, or misaligned teeth. This problem can result in the jaw muscles functioning more than typical to unite the teeth and keep the mouth closed. Commonly, this can lead to some headache or even eye pain.
Referred Tooth Pain to Your Head
Notwithstanding tooth pain triggering a migraine, advanced gum disease or tooth decay can attribute pain to the head.
Referred pain implies that you experience a painful sensation in various parts of your body rather than the part causing the discomfort. This is because of the many nerve associations that connect the teeth and other facial constructions to the brain.
Furthermore, a person often books an appointment with their doctor for tension-type headaches or migraines when experiencing a dental issue.
Bruxism
Bruxism is a typical example of referred pain to the head. A person with this condition regularly grinds their teeth or clenches their jaw during nighttime.
Generally, headaches in this condition describe pain as a dull pain around the head or behind the eyes. Other indications of bruxism are clicking the jaw joint, aching teeth and jaw muscles, and difficulty opening and closing the mouth.
Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis
The cavernous sinus is a space in the brain, behind the eye. Though uncommon, an untreated dental condition may cause an issue in this area. This problem is called cavernous sinus thrombosis, a serious, life-threatening blood clot. Generally, a blood clot happens when an infection in the face or head progresses to the brain.
Severe headache is the main symptom of cavernous sinus thrombosis. The pain often felt pressure behind the eye or on the forehead. Other symptoms of the condition include:
- Eyelid swelling
- High fever
- A weakness of the eye movement
- Eyeball protrusion
Underlying Health Problems
There are a few conditions that might cause both a headache and tooth pain. However, they are not really identified with a dental or headache disorder.
Temporomandibular Joint Disorder
Temporomandibular joint disorder, also known as TMD or simple TMJ, is another condition that can result in toothaches. This is a common issue within the jaw joint, situated before your ear and the muscles encompassing it.
Other than toothaches, TMJ regularly causes headaches. This head pain usually starts close to the ear and moves towards the temple, jaw, or neck. Generally, you can experience headaches when you move your jaw, such as when you chew or open and close your mouth.
Sinus Infection
A sinus infection, also known as sinusitis, may cause discomfort in one or a few teeth, particularly in the upper part of your teeth, behind your cheekbones.
Additionally, a sinus headache that turns out to be more regrettable when bending forward is a common symptom of a sinus infection. In any case, other sinus infection symptoms include:
- Fatigue
- Bad breath
- Fever
- Ear pressure or fullness
- Nasal congestion and green or yellow mucus
Trigeminal Neuralgia
This is a pain disorder that develops because of the pressure or harm of the trigeminal nerve. Trigeminal neuralgia can cause sudden attacks of agonizing, stabbing, or shock-like facial pain, quite often just on one side of the face.
Much of the time, the pain occurs in the upper or lower jaw, which is why individuals sometimes go to their dentist first. This is because they thought that they are suffering from a dental abscess. Truth be told, it is common for an individual to have one or more unnecessary tooth extractions or root canals before diagnosing trigeminal neuralgia.
Toothache Causing Headache and Eye Pain: The Treatment
Tooth pain due to migraines is treated by addressing head pain and not the teeth.
There is no definite medical approach to clearly cure the migraine. In any case, there are a few treatment options available that can help lessen your painful symptoms and decrease the frequency and intensity of your migraine attacks.
To ease signs and symptoms of headache, you may attempt:
- taking OTC pain medications, such as aspirin or ibuprofen, at the earliest indications of a migraine attack
- taking doctor’s prescriptions made to treat migraines like triptans
- eating something
- taking prescription anti-sickness medications
- sleeping or resting in a darkened room
- allowing yourself to get rest whenever you feel nauseated
- getting acupuncture therapy, which is a common approach in Chinese medicine to deal with pain
- receiving transcranial magnetic stimulation administered by healthcare experts
Furthermore, some individuals find that home remedies can reduce headache side effects or prevent migraine attacks from happening. Common approaches include:
- taking a magnesium supplement
- drinking plenty of water
- making sure you get adequate sleep
- restricting your consumption of alcohol
Conclusion
If you encounter a new headache or tooth pain, make sure to visit your doctor. Figuring out the underlying cause can be challenging, even for your medical provider. Hence, it is necessary to be persistent about finding the diagnosis.
Figuring out if your toothache or headache is connected can be complicated. In fact, tooth pain can promote a migraine, or dental problems such as teeth grinding or bruxism may refer to torment to the head.
Dental infections can be a dangerous condition. That is why it is crucial to immediately make an appointment with a dentist for extreme pain in your teeth. This is particularly significant if it is not joined by other symptoms in your mouth, such as swelling or redness.
Suppose your dentist cannot see anything wrong with your mouth. Then, in that case, they might suggest that you see an ear, nose, and throat specialist, primary care doctor, or neurologist. A neurologist is a brain expert who can help check you for migraines.
Though there is no actual test to evaluate a migraine, it is possible to conclude by recognizing a pattern of migraine attacks along with pain and other manifestations.
Moreover, a few conditions can result in pain not identified with a dental or primary headache disorder. These incorporate TMJ disorders, sinus infections, and trigeminal neuralgia. Cooperating with your healthcare provider is vital in making the underlying diagnosis and source of your pain.
References:
Impacted wisdom teeth.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/wisdom-teeth/symptoms-causes/syc-20373808
Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK448177/
The Most Common Dental Problems.
https://www.verywellhealth.com/top-common-dental-problems-1059461
Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD).
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/temporomandibular-disorder-tmd
Diagnosis - Trigeminal neuralgia.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/trigeminal-neuralgia/diagnosis/
