I will show you how to get rid of migraine headaches. Fact: Most migraines begin between 5 and 5 a.m. Migraine is caused when there is abnormal sensory modulation in the Trigeminal nerve, the 5th cranial nervous. What is sensory modulation? Imagine running for your life as someone chases you with an axe.
Let’s understand it
You fall and break your leg. You get up. You twist your ankle. You get up. You continue running at the same speed. You run faster than you ever have before. These injuries could have been sustained at work or at home and you would likely be in pain. Your brain is constantly deciding which priorities to prioritize.
What is important and requires attention and what is routine stuff? Sensory Modulation is that. Your brain decided that keeping alive was more important than minor injuries in the above scenario. You may be wondering, “What does all this have to do with migraine?” The Trigeminal nerve supplies the face, some scalp and upper and lower teeth. It also supplies the meninges.
Keep in mind
The nerve Tri-geminal has three branches or divisions, as its name suggests. The information these 3 divisions receive is fed back into the Trigeminal Sensory Nucleus, which is where sensory modulation occurs for this particular nerve. The 2nd and 3rd sections supply the upper and bottom teeth, respectively.
If you grind or clench your teeth while you sleep, the sensory impulses travel along mandibular and maxillary branches back to the sensory neuron, which, for some reason (not fully understood), sensitizes the nucleus. This means that the nucleus cannot tell what is important from what isn’t. This is called abnormal sensory modulation. This causes the ophthalmic branches to fire off nerve impulses to the blood vessels in meninges. This causes inflammation which then causes migraine. It is easy to treat migraines, as most migraines are caused from clenching or grinding the teeth.
Conclusion
Migraines can be cured by changing your oral parafunction (or grinding) to stop clenching and grinding. The question is, “How can we stop this oral parafunction?” You can do this by separating your teeth while you sleep. A Night Guard is a soft appliance that fits over the upper and lower teeth. If there is still grinding or clenching, the night guard will reduce the stress on the TMJs. This will eventually reduce and stop the sensitization of the Trigeminal Sensory nucleus.