Clinical correlation between tension headache, myofascial pain and occlusal disturbance in young adults a cross sectional study

Abstract

Context: Tension type headaches (TTH) are become quite common in the current times. These have become the cause of speculated migraine and get treated as the same with limited relief in the symptoms. This type of headache needs to be evaluated for Pericranial tenderness and association with myofascial pain. As per recent studies it is becoming increasingly clear that pericranial tenderness or tenderness in muscles of head and neck may manifest as migraine and tension type headaches. Aims: To co-relate tension type headache with myofascial pain and occlusal discrepancies. Design: Cross sectional study. Materials and Methods: Forty six patients suffering from TTH were enrolled in the study and were examined for myofascial and pericranial tenderness and the same was correlated with occlusal disturbances. The data obtained was then statistically evaluated using the chi square test. Results: A significant co relation between Tension type headache and muscle tenderness and various parameters included was seen in our study which may also be related to malocclusion and occlusal discrepancies. Conclusions: Clinical co-relation can be established between TTH, myofascial pain and malocclusion. Patients with malocclusion are likely to develop myofascial pain and associated tension type headache. Key Messages: Tension Headache or migraine is not the only cause of headache, as postulated frequently, there may be other reasons too for the same. Pericranial tenderness needs to be evaluated and considered as one of the etiology for headache and needs to be treated accordingly. © This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.