That Tooth Pain May NOT be a cavity!

I have recently become a little stressed out. Yes, Even a lifestyle coach who KNOWS how to take care of stress can sometimes get a little "over-worked." Heck, when I am up to something BIG in life, a little stress and excitement are not only unavoidable but one of the measures that I am really LIVING life.

The stress showed up for me as sleeping restlessly and clenching my jaw. I used to clench my jaw a lot when I was younger and suffered from canker sores on my tongue and cheeks from the pressure. On top of the teeth-clenching, I began to get that deep throbbing pain in my back molars signaling a tooth abscess.

Being no newbie to root canals with 3 other molars completely replaced, I have felt this pain before. This time, I booked an appointment with the dentist but had a funny feeling that I was doing the wrong thing. I poured through articles and certification that I have studied trying to find out more about my teeth until I found a book I read about 2 years ago called Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual by Doctors Janet Travell and David Simons.

This book had helped me numerous times with clients with muscle knots and pain related to these trigger points. Astonishingly, I found a passage about trigger points actually CAUSING tooth pain and heat/cold sensitivity! The book explained that certain trigger points above the ear and in the jaw muscles will actually sends pain to the teeth sometimes causing unnecessary extractions.

So, I started to massage my trigger points and, yup--you guessed it...the pain went away. I have been working giant knots in my jaws daily and the pain in my teeth is almost gone...including the heath and cold sensitivity that accompanied that side of my mouth for the past 2 years.

I wonder if the over $3000 of dental bills for my other teeth was even necessary. Perhaps I did have abscesses but the teeth I had pulled on the right side of my mouth are the EXACT teeth that were killing me just days ago. I guess I will never know...but now YOU CAN KNOW before you go under the drill.

Check out the book excerpt with pictures of the trigger points here