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Care designed for patients whose headaches interfere with daily life, using careful evaluation and non-surgical strategies to help manage symptoms and improve day-to-day functioning.
Services
Headaches
Understanding Headache Conditions
Headache disorders vary widely in cause, pattern, and severity, and proper diagnosis is essential. Some headaches are primary conditions, while others may be influenced by muscle tension, jaw disorders, sleep disruption, or neurologic factors.
Because treatment depends on the specific headache type, a careful review of symptom history, triggers, and headache characteristics is critical. Accurate diagnosis helps guide both short-term symptom management and long-term care planning, while also identifying when a headache may signal an underlying medical condition requiring further evaluation.
Headaches can arise from a wide range of contributing factors, including neurologic, muscular, jaw-related, sleep-related, vascular, or systemic influences. Many patients experience overlapping contributors rather than a single identifiable cause, which is why careful evaluation of headache patterns and symptoms is essential for appropriate management.
Primary headaches are conditions in which the headache itself is the primary disorder rather than a symptom of another medical condition. According to the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD), these include migraine, tension-type headache, trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (such as cluster headache, SUNCT/SUNA, hemicrania continua, and paroxysmal hemicrania), as well as other less common primary headache types.
Timing, location, duration, and associated symptoms provide critical diagnostic clues. Carefully evaluating these patterns helps distinguish primary headache disorders from secondary headaches, which may be caused by underlying conditions such as head or neck injury, stroke, intracranial bleeding, or vascular abnormalities. Identifying this difference is essential to guiding appropriate care and ensuring patient safety.
Jaw dysfunction and muscle tension can increase strain on the head and neck, contributing to or worsening certain headache patterns.
Many headache conditions change over time. Care focuses on understanding triggers, monitoring patterns, and adjusting strategies as symptoms evolve.
