Have you ever heard of someone having a tooth pulled because they had pain in the tooth? But afterward they still had the pain? I have. Here’s how:
There are muscles in your head that can actually cause you to feel pain in your teeth. The pain is not IN your tooth but that is where you feel it. Removing the tooth doesn’t get rid of the pain because that wasn’t the cause of the pain to start with.
The muscles in your head can get “tight” and ornery just like any other muscles. They can develop trigger points. Trigger points are areas in muscles that “fire” or cause pain at some distance.
The muscles at the sides of your head–your temples–can cause pain in any of your top teeth, depending which part of the temple muscles are involved.
Your jaw muscles, the ones in front of your ears, can cause pain in your back teeth (molars.)
Your front lower teeth can hurt or have strange sensations caused by a muscle under your jaw that attaches to your hyoid bone (Adam’s apple.)
If you have tooth pain and your teeth are in good condition, don’t get them pulled until you (or your massage therapist) checks for trigger points in the temporalis (temple) muscles, the massater (jaw) muscles and the digastric muscle (under your chin.)
By pressing on the muscles, sometimes pinching them. “pulling” your hair or ears, or doing other types of massage, you can get rid of the trigger points, relax the muscles and get rid of your “tooth ache.”
