Trusted San Francisco dentist offers migraine treatment services

Pounding across your forehead… tension along the back of your skull and into your neck… pressure in your sinuses… or an intense throbbing sensation that shoots through your head… Sometimes this pain is joined by sensitivity to light and sounds, dizziness, nausea, and auras such as seeing lights flash before your eyes. Headaches – especially migraine headaches – are painful and can cause you to lose precious moments or days with your family, your friends, at your job, or doing the things you love. When migraines begin to occur frequently, patients want to know where they can go for help. Dr. Jamil Alkhoury of the TMJ & Sleep Therapy Centre of San Francisco uses his knowledge and experience to help patients find a treatment that will stop the frequency of migraine headaches or eliminate them all together.

What causes a migraine?

Migraines are commonly self-treated at the onset by patients with over the counter (OTC) pain medication or avoided by daily prescription medication. Sometimes patients and doctors can work together to determine foods, stressors, or other triggers that set off a headache and patients can work to avoid them. However, often, migraines seem to come and go with no underlying cause.

If you’re struggling with headaches and have not been able to discover a medical or environmental cause, it could be time to call your dentist. Studies have shown an increase in headaches that are affected by jaw positioning. These are the headaches that are typically not helped by physicians because they are not trained to look for these causes.

Treatment for migraines caused by improper positioning of the jaw

Dr. Alkhoury has been helping patients find relief from their headache using non-invasive appliance therapy. Each case is unique and therefore each treatment is tailored to the individual placement. Dr. Alkhoury and his team will work with you to determine if an appliance would help decrease your headaches, and if so, we will fit you with an appliance to keep you from clenching your jaw or grinding your teeth. Many patients clench their jaw, or even have their back teeth touch, which causes the muscles to contract, without even knowing it. Using the appliance keeps those muscles from contracting and helps your headaches.

Most adults experience headaches from time to time. However, if you’re living with frequent and/or painful headaches that can’t be explained, call the TMJ & Sleep Therapy Centre of San Francisco at 415-226-7274 to schedule a consultation.

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