Do your teeth press together while you concentrate, and by late afternoon your temples throb? A dental assessment looks at the jaw muscles, joints and teeth, and tells you when a doctor should review the headaches. Sudden severe pain or neurological symptoms are an emergency.
You are deep in a spreadsheet or a long drive when you notice your back teeth are pressed firmly together. By mid-afternoon your temples hurt and your jaw feels heavy. Daytime clenching is common, and for some people it is linked with a temporomandibular disorder, a problem involving the jaw joints or chewing muscles. Headaches can also come from elsewhere entirely, and the two can coexist.
Catching the habit is a useful observation, but it is not a diagnosis. We will want the fuller picture: when the headaches begin, where they sit, how your jaw opens and whether eating, talking or screen time changes anything. That shapes the examination. It does not prove that clenching, the position of a tooth or your bite is producing the headache.
From Burlington, you can book an assessment at our Bronte Street practice, where we examine your teeth and jaw and are upfront when the headaches belong with your family doctor or a specialist. Burlington readers who have been told a night guard is the answer should know that no device comes with a headache guarantee. Anything new, intense or unlike your usual pattern may need medical attention before routine dental care.
Take a week to notice when symptoms appear and what you were doing. Bring that, plus any headache diagnosis or treatment you already have, which symptom showed up first, and whether anything feels new.
Describe how the jaw feels after long periods of focus: tight, sore, tired or reluctant to open. Point to where the headache is. Tell us whether chewing, a long meeting or keeping your mouth open changes either symptom. These clues guide the exam without pinning the headache on the jaw.
Explain what has become difficult, such as concentrating, finishing meals or sleeping through, and how often. List your medicines and any guard or splint you have used before, along with how it went. Real examples from your week tell us more than an online symptom checker.
New, worsening or unfamiliar headaches need a doctor's review. If your jaw hurts while chewing and your scalp is tender, get urgent medical assessment, and treat any blurring or loss of sight as more pressing still. That pairing is not ordinary desk tension and should not wait.
Call 911 or seek emergency help for a sudden, extremely severe headache, fresh weakness or numbness, slurred speech, confusion, a seizure or vision loss. A severe headache with a fever and stiff neck also requires emergency assessment.
The examination may show tooth wear, tender chewing muscles, signs in the jaw joint, a dental problem, or very little. Each outcome tells you something. Keep asking what the evidence supports and where it stops, because overlapping symptoms invite one treatment to be given credit for problems it was never meant to solve.
Agree on the target before starting anything. Protecting teeth from clenching, easing a stiff jaw and treating headaches are three separate jobs. A good recommendation names its job, and it comes with a way for you and the dentist to judge whether it is working.
Patient information: NIDCR — TMD assessment, overlapping symptoms, and conservative treatment
Your history and the exam are considered as a set, rather than one sore muscle or a quick glance at your bite. Ask whether they explain your symptoms well enough, or whether someone else should look. A dental check should leave room for any medical discussion you need.
If a jaw condition is found, low-key approaches that can be undone usually come before anything invasive or permanent. Find out what is planned, why it fits your findings and when it will be checked, plus what to do if symptoms get worse or show no change.
If you see a family doctor, a headache specialist, a physiotherapist or someone else, mention it. Shared findings help each person understand their role. Please continue any prescribed headache treatment while the jaw is looked at, and talk about changes with the person who prescribed it.
Leaving with advice, a review booking or a referral is common, and a device on the first day is not the norm. Ask what we still need to learn before a treatment decision would be sensible.
We ask about the headache and the jaw in turn: location, timing, frequency, duration and effect on your day. Share past diagnoses, medicines, injuries and treatments. A few notes on when clenching happens can help show what genuinely happens together and what simply overlaps.
The dentist checks for dental problems, wear and tenderness, and how the jaw moves, as appropriate. Imaging or other tests come up only when the result could change a decision. You will hear what the exam showed and whether your physician should be looking at the headaches in parallel.
We cover suitable options and what each is meant to do. If an appliance is discussed, ask whether its role is protecting teeth from clenching or something else specific, and what it cannot achieve. Decide together how change will be measured, so a device is never treated as the diagnosis.
At the follow-up, report on the headaches and the jaw separately; better in one does not mean better in both. Ask whether the plan still suits you, whether more assessment would help, and how a referral would fit with your other care.
Work from your own instructions and keep the routine light. Starting several new stretches, gadgets or remedies all at once makes it nearly impossible to tell what helps and what irritates the jaw.
Write down when a headache starts, how long it lasts, what it interrupts, any other symptoms and the medicine you use, with a line about the jaw. Bring it to your next dental or medical visit. It supports the discussion; it is not for diagnosing yourself or putting off a worrying change.
Get clear instructions on any temporary changes, exercises or comfort measures. Skip the wide-open stretches, the deliberate popping of the joint and any routine from a video that only works if you ignore pain. Let us know if something we recommended seems to make matters worse.
If a prescribed splint becomes painful, stop using it and contact the provider. Mention it, too, if your back teeth seem to land differently or the appliance is a struggle to seat. Leave any trimming to the provider, and never read soreness as proof that the splint is working on your headaches.
Patient information: NICE — headache diaries, associated symptoms, and medication-use assessment
These answers prepare you for a dental conversation. They do not replace medical assessment of new, severe, recurring or changing headaches, and warning signs need immediate action.
Contact our Bronte Street practice to talk about jaw tension that comes with your headaches and the assessment route that suits you. Flag any recent change in your headaches at the time of booking; it helps us judge how soon to see you and whether a doctor should be first.
We assess teeth and jaws, not the medical causes of headache. Splints, bite adjustments and dental treatment carry no promise of relief. Warning signs mean emergency care, not a dental call.
