An article just published considers Tension-Type Headache (TTH) to be the most common headache. The authors also feel that TTH is a precursor for Chronic daily headache. Tension-Type headaches, according to the article, have peripheral mechanisms. The conversion to Chronic Daily Headaches or Chronic Type Tension Headache (CTTH) is considered debilitating. This would seem to imply that correction of the periheral inputs that cause
Tension-Type headaches could prevent CTTH or Chronic Tension Type Headache.

I Hate Headaches.org is dedicated to this very concept. Noxious input from the Trigeminal Nerves creates clencing and muscle pain via the trigeminal nerve. Failure to correct this early can lead to Central Sensitization and Chronic Daily Headaches as well as Migraine. Neuromuscular Dentistry (NMD) is a method of relaxing the stomatognathic neuromuscular system to turn of TTH and prevent Migraine and CTTH.

The goal of neuromuscular dentistry is to “tone down” the neuromuscular input, relax the mandibular muscles and create an environment where healing can occur. NEUROMUSCULAR DENTISTRY FREQUENTLY UTILIZES A DIAGNOSTIC ORTHOTIC THAT ALLOWS PHYSIOLOGIC CORRECTIONS THRU A REVERSIBLE TREATMENT. Using reversible treatment initially is important in almost all cases. When headaches, joint pain, muscle pain and migraines have been treated and eliminated a long term treatment plan that may make irreversible changes can be planned and instituted.

The website http://www.ihatecpap.org offers information on the neuromuscular dentistry and how headaches can be treated and prevented. Chicago Neuromuscular dentist Dr Ira L Shapira founded I HATE HEADACHES to increase public awareness of utilizing NMD to treat and prevent many types of headaches.

PubMed Abstract is included for your convenience
Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2009 Dec;13(6):484-94.
Advances in the pathophysiology of tension-type headache: from stress to central sensitization.
Chen Y.

Department of Neurology, NYU Medical Center, New York University, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA. [email protected]
Tension-type headache (TTH) is the most common andCurr Pain Headache Rep. 2009 Dec;13(6):484-94.
Advances in the pathophysiology of tension-type headache: from stress to central sensitization.
Chen Y.

Department of Neurology, NYU Medical Center, New York University, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA. [email protected]
Tension-type headache (TTH) is the most common and most socioeconomically costly headache. Yet our knowledge regarding TTH pathophysiological mechanisms is still in its early stages. Psychological stress and weak coping mechanisms may initiate and propagate physiological pain via activation of second messengers in downstream substrates involved in pain. It seems that peripheral mechanisms are predominant in the episodic type (ETTH), whereas central mechanisms are involved in the chronic type (CTTH) of tension headache. The conversion from ETTH to CTTH is most relevant to the clinician and the patient, as CTTH is the most debilitating. This paper focuses and summarizes our current understanding of central sensitization, the process by which this conversion occurs in TTH, and proposes an integrated model to explain how ETTH progresses into CTTH in genetically susceptible individuals.

PMID: 19889292 [PubMed – in process]. Yet our knowledge regarding TTH pathophysiological mechanisms is still in its early stages. Psychological stress and weak coping mechanisms may initiate and propagate physiological pain via activation of second messengers in downstream substrates involved in pain. It seems that peripheral mechanisms are predominant in the episodic type (ETTH), whereas central mechanisms are involved in the chronic type (CTTH) of tension headache. The conversion from ETTH to CTTH is most relevant to the clinician and the patient, as CTTH is the most debilitating. This paper focuses and summarizes our current understanding of central sensitization, the process by which this conversion occurs in TTH, and proposes an integrated model to explain how ETTH progresses into CTTH in genetically susceptible individuals.

PMID: 19889292 [PubMed – in process]