How Tooth Aches Cause Neck Pain
Have you spent years dealing with neck pain? Undergoing dozens of treatments? Taking any medicine or “cure” you can get your hands on, but to no avail?
The root of the cause may not be orthopedic-related. In fact, you may not even be experiencing neck pain, but rather a radiation of pain from your tooth. Here’s why:
In a word, TMJ. TMJ – or temporo mandibular joint disorder – is a disorder of the joint between the jaw and the skull. When the joint becomes inflamed, it can affect the surrounding nerves – nerves that send pain signals to the neck. Ask any orthopedic doctor or dentist, and the answer will always be the same: the tissues between the neck and jaw are all “structurally innervated” (a fancy term for “everything is connected!”)
How to Apply the Socratic Method to Your Neck Pain
Before you go jumping to conclusions – and running to the dentist’s with complaints of neck pain – make like Socrates, and question the thought process! The last paragraph mentioned that tooth pain can send signals to the neck. If that is true, then can the reverse also be true? In ancient Greece, Socrates may not have had the medical technology to answer this question. But we can, and the answer is yes! The nerves and joints of the neck and jaw are a two-way street; any pain in the area, if left untreated, can travel down or up (and progress into more complicated and severe problems).
So, if you are experiencing neck pain, and also tooth pain, visit both your orthopedist and dentist. Tell your dentist you have neck pain (along with tooth pain), and tell your orthopedist you have tooth pain (along with neck pain). They will be able to perform tests and provide treatments that just may save you from worsening pain, in the long run.
For information about Healthpointe or neck pain medicine call 888-719-8448 or contact any of the Healthpointe clinics, such as the Anaheim clinic near Fullerton, Placentia, Villa Park, Buena Park, Cypress, Cerritos, and Garden Grove.
Healthpointe offers services throughout SoCal (Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, and Riverside County), with locations in Southern California including La Mirada, by Whittier, La Habra, Norwalk, Cerritos, Buena Park, and Santa Fe Springs. We are proud of our excellence over the last four decades with private patients, injured workers, urgent care, personal injuries, and professional and non-professional athletes.