Can Wisdom Teeth Cause Headaches?

Wisdom teeth can be a hassle. Or they can be nothing at all, just some extra teeth hanging out in the back of your mouth. But if you’re one of the unlucky people with troublesome wisdom teeth, you might start wondering what sorts of problems your good ol’ wisdom teeth area actually giving you. As they’re coming in, a headache might pop up. Sometimes a headache is just a headache. But if your wisdom teeth are coming in and giving you grief, that headache might be a wisdom tooth headache.

As those great teeth of false wisdom appear, a gum pouch develops where the tooth is trying to push through. This pouch can become infected, swelling up and getting in the way of some of your other teeth. Obviously, you don’t want to bite on that tiny pillow of infected gum tissue; it would hurt too much. So, most people solve the biting issue by adjusting their jaw position and changing their bite. This is where the problem really begins.

By adjusting the position of your jaws, you may be instantly developing a bad bite. This makes the jaw joints go into the wrong position, which causes them to become inflamed and provide pain and problems for you. If that isn’t horrible enough, the bad bite pushes your jaw joints into your ear muscles whenever your teeth bite together. Because of this, your jaw muscles try and correct the problem to keep the pressure of the ear muscles, but instead go into spasms and cause pain. That is what causes that awful headache. Headaches are terrible enough, but someone with incoming wisdom teeth may constantly experience a wisdom tooth headache.

Treatment

The best treatment for a wisdom tooth headache is the removal of those wisdom teeth. Taking painkillers will only take away the pain and will not correct the core problem. Removing your wisdom teeth will keep your jaw from developing an improper bite and will, in turn, stop those wisdom tooth headaches.

A Wisdom Tooth Infection

In some cases, a wisdom tooth infection can create pus that leaks into the jaw muscles and irritates them. Such an infection can prevent a person from opening their mouth and can also throw in that unpleasant wisdom tooth headache. In these situations, see a dentist immediately, as the infection can flow into the brain and cause long term issues or even death.