Muscle Referral Patterns into Teeth and the TMJ

Courtesy: Dr Rich Hirschinger

If you have dental pain that no one else can explain it could very likely be due to various muscles especially if the pain is achy, dull, sore, and deep. The muscle referral patterns were first published by Dr. Janet Travell and Dr. David Simons. Dr. Travell was the first female who was appointed as the personal physician of a United States President. She served as John F. Kennedy’s personal physician in 1961 since she had previously treated Kennedy in the 1950’s since he had a lot of back pain some of which was due to muscular pain and Dr. Travell was able to help him. The muscle referral patterns of the head and neck can cause teeth to hurt, they can refer pain into the TMJ, which stands for temporomandibular joint, the can refer pain into the eyes, forehead, top of the head, cheeks, chin, etc. There are actually 17 locations in the head and neck that can be painful due to the muscles referring pain to a remote location.

Learn about referred muscle pain into teeth.

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Learn about treatment for TMJ.