Mumbai: 

OUCH: Dr Sandesh Mayekar, at his dental clinic at Dadar

If you've given up hope of getting rid of that migraine with your physician's medicines, try a visit to your dentist. Bizarre as it may sound, many dentists have successfully cured headaches, as it has been found that these headaches are a result of jaw disorders.

Producer Aarti Surendrenath's mother Jessie Gupta lived with a migraine for six years. She tried several painkillers unsuccessfully. The pain on the left side of her head became so unbearable that she decided to visit her daughter's dentist. "I went to neurosurgeons and ENT specialists, but nothing helped until I met my daughter's dentist. He detected a hole on the left side of my jaw. Cold air was passing to my nose from the hole causing migraines on the left side of my head," said Gupta.

Such a condition is termed as a Temporo-Mandibular Joint disorder or TMJ syndrome. It is caused by an imbalance between the upper and lower jaw. "Many times a cheap filling is used instead of a 3M filler. The pain may also be due to excessive grinding of teeth or a missing tooth, " says dentist Dr Sandesh Mayekar, who treated Gupta.

Four months and a plastic biteplate later, Gupta doesn't even remember that she ever lived with such pain. "I had resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to live with the pain. Now, all I have to do is wear my plate when I sleep and the pain is gone," said Gupta. Plastic biteplates aside, braces or implants can also be used to correct the jaw imbalance.

Mayeker also has patients as young as 15 visiting him. He says they experience headaches because they clench their teeth regularly under academic stress. "I was myself diagnosed with spondylitis because I used to clench my teeth when I slept. Other patients visited me with the assumption that they have serious ENT problems, but, in fact, they all suffer from jaw disorders," said Mayekar.