Ignored Cause

Trigeminal Nerve

In the NEWSWEEK cover

story on “Migraines,” Jan. 11, 1999, they mention the trigeminal nerve as the major cause, but they only illustrate 2 of the 3 major branches of the trigeminal nerve. In the TIME magazine cover story titled “Preventing Headaches,” Oct.7, 2002, they eliminate these same 2 major branches and their functions. However, research scientists from around the world state boldly, “During the course of migraine, scientists discovered, the trigeminal nerve practically floods the brain with pain signals. The more researchers learn about the trigeminal nerve, the more they believe it is responsible for all types of primary headaches, including tension and cluster headaches. The difference in headache types seems to stem from what activates the trigeminal nerve and how it responds.” These articles focus on strong drugs to mask the problem. We focus on the other 2 major branches, and we permanently eliminate the trauma that is triggering referred pain throughout the head and face, and the upper regions of the body. Herein lies the problem, which explains why you have never been examined for the cause.

The medical profession focuses on the smallest of the 3 major branches, the ophthalmic branch, which supplies upper regions of the forehead, the eye and the meninges surrounding the brain where many patients experience their pain. They send you for a multitude of tests including expensive MRI’s, Cat scans, and neurological testing. They treat with a series of drugs beginning with pain relievers, then muscle relaxants, and finally a combination of both plus antianxiety and antidepressants, and they may even refer you for psychiatric counseling because you are stressed and can’t cope. This may possibly lead to even stronger and more mind-altering meds that may cover up the pain or slow its onset, but it does not permanently address the cause.

You continue to be undiagnosed by the medical profession for years because they rarely pay any serious attention to the mouth. They don’t measure the maximum opening of your mouth. They don’t palpate for tenderness or pain in your chewing muscles, or the muscles of your head and face. They don’t palpate your TM joint for pain, or listen to the joints with a stethoscope to see if they are dislocated or arthritic. They have not been trained to diagnose deep overbites, open bites, cross bites, or poor bites in general. Every individual tooth in the mouth is supplied by the trigeminal nerve. Something as simple as one crooked or rotated tooth, or missing tooth could be triggering the trigeminal system every time your teeth impact together while chewing, clenching, or grinding during sleep. This is why many chronic headache sufferers don’t sleep well and wake up with morning headaches.

If you have a stone in your shoe, you will favor one side and not walk normally. When you have teeth, muscles, and joints that are being forced on every impact of the teeth to function out of their comfort zone, you will chew differently to avoid the pain, just like the stone. You will favor one side or another, and you will even carry your head to one side or another, triggering another series of problems in the neck and down the entire body due to the weight of your head. If you think about it even your toes will be repositioned to maintain your balance.

Dentists, on the other hand, may see the excessive wear patterns on your teeth that are telltale signs, and the bite discrepancies listed above, but they don’t ask if you suffer from recurring headaches, migraines, neck pain, eye pain, ear pain, vertigo, and many other symptoms thought to be psychosomatic before this treatment. (see symptom page)

Meanwhile you fall into the abyss of a lifetime of life-altering pain, and neither profession is responsible. At the Chronic Pain Solution Center, we can permanently eliminate the majority of your pain, using modern computers that enable us to balance the forces exerted on this huge cranial nerve complex. We are able to do this on a permanent basis because your teeth are the only extensions of your skeleton that erupt through the skin. Using the computer, we are able to permanently reshape the way your two arches of teeth (a 3 dimensional convoluted puzzle of sloping cusps) impact with each other. By eliminating these glancing blows on impact, we are able to reduce the excessive stresses on the teeth, the surrounding bones, the muscles you chew with, and both facial joints, all supplied by the largest of the 12 cranial nerves, the trigeminal. When this constant reoccurring stress is eliminated, the trigeminal stops causing the severe and deceptive referred pain in the form of headaches, eye pain, ear pain, etc. And better yet, it does not reoccur. When the pain is gone, sleep improves, and fatigue and depression are also eliminated.

More good news: because this treatment is neurological, orthopedic, and muscular in nature, it is covered under most major medical insurance polices. Not dental insurance.

A satisfied patient, Angie says it best, “It’s nice for me to have my life back, but it’s even nicer for my husband to have his wife back, and my kids to have their mom back.” Put an end to your pain and get your life back for both you and your family.