Migraine

Hi everyone.

My son who is six was diganosed with hemiplegic migraine about one year ago. He recently began grinding his teeth at night again. This seems to go hand in hand with bad migraine episodes.

Any suggestions/info welcome. I have read about how adults are treated with this but is as his teeth are contantly changing I dont see how a mouthgard would work?

Like all those weird things that happen with kids migraine I dont know whether to treat the symptom or the migraine. He had a very bad period of teeth grinding when he was two and has significant wear on his teeth.

Any advice from anyone who has experience with this in young children is welcome.

PS Ive spent hours reading peoples stories on this site and it has been a godsend. Thanks to all for sharing

Hi Daisy,

Teeth grinding is a common trigger for Migraine, as it can irritate the trigeminal nerve, the inflammation of which has been implicated in Migraine. Teri has an excellent illustration that helps explain this:

Illustration: Pathways of Migraine

So, yes, it may be worthwhile to treat your son's teeth grinding. I don't have much information about options for children, but have you discussed this with a dentist? A dentist would be more familiar with what your options might be to treat his teeth grinding.

Hope this helps, and good luck to you.

Daisy,

I'm in my 30's now, but I've had teeth grinding/TMJ pain all of my life! As a kid (starting at about age 8) I wore a mouth guard. It actually did help with my "headaches," but I had a habit of taking it out of my mouth and flinging it across the room in my sleep!

I think MJ's right on target here--I would certainly consult with your son's dentist and see about possible treatment for his teeth grinding. I know my migraines are just terrible when I've been grinding a lot at night...

jenny

My mom has bruxism & used to wear a mouth gard for years & found it very helpful. She recommended going to a dentist, because the OTC mouth guards, if they don't fit properly can cause more pain than help.

good luck!

I don't have any experience with mouthguards and children, but I wear one every night. It helps with the pain in my temples.

I agree that your son's dentist would be a great source of information about how to treat his grinding.

Gretchen

As far as grinding teeth, you can get a mouth guard either OTC (over the counter) or from the denstist.

It may be better from the dentist since your son is so young. The ones over the counter may be too big.

Thanks for all the advice.

I have had a long chat to his dentist and she thinks he is still too young to have a splint (mouthgard) made as he still has baby teeth and it would need to be replaced at a cost of a couple of hundred dollars each time he gets a new tooth. He only has 2 adult teeth and has a wobbley tooth at the moment.

She did however suggest treating him for worms and flat feet (causing bad spinal alignment) as a possible trigger for grinding so i will let you know how that goes.

He has had a week of really disturbed sleep with grinding, tossing and turning, cramps, headache, snoring, apnea, bad dreams and problems being too hot or cold. This all climaxed in a vomiting migraine on Friday night.

The good news is that this only lasted the one night. Seems to be back to sleeping more peacfully now. We had visitors last week and I just think we did too much for the poor little boy to cope with.

Cheers Daisy

Daisy,

is your son's apnea being treated? When my apnea is worse, my asthma & GERD get worse, which means I'm much more likely to have hemiplegic episodes...
Is your son's dentist familiar with pediatric sleep issues?

However, I find that the sleep mask (I have a hybrid since I scream and talk in my sleep) hurts my teeth due the pressure- I am very sensitive- and have more jaw pain since I started APAP therapy, which doesn't help my migraines. I have a childhood history of grinding, but I don't think I have this as an adult, but wonder if CPAP masks could contribute to this- especially when one has a small face & moves around alot in your sleep (like your son & me). I think the wrong pressure or if someone has Central Apnea along with OSA (but not diagnosed), that can make other nocturnal symptoms worse.

What does flat feet have to do with it? I had flat feet/leg difference as a kid, but the only issue it caused me was sciatica, and joint pain in my knee & hip. I was also high risk for scoliosis. Orthopedic shoes/cookies/lifts helped, but I can't tolerate them as an adult. Again, from my personal experience, my orthopedic issues affected my lower back & leg problems, and I am unclear what that has to do with an upper body issue. Orthopaedists are the ones who deal with this issue. Did the doctor explain what relationship this has with teeth grinding?

Worms? where did this come from? I'm confused.

Hi Alexanda "Morpheus"

Yes the worm thing sounds strange but apparently it is a major cause of teeth grinding in small children.

I came home and typed "worms bruxism" into goggle and got a whole list of articles about this relationship. So I think worming him is worth a try. I will let everyone know if it helps.

Regarding the flat feet she said for some people this caused spinal alignment problems that cause teeth grinding. Given how bad his migraine has been I think it is worth getting investigated. She did say that this is not true for everyone but another thing to look into.

I have found that treatment by the osteopath has been really helpful especially if he can get it during the prodrome stage of the migraine.

Regarding the apnea it comes and goes. We are waiting for an appointment to see a Paedactric Neuro who has a special interest in headache (closest we could get to PMS here)and will bring it up again as just recently all the sleep stuff has come back with a vengance.

His Paedatrician (who has been fantastic) suggested a year ago a steriod based nasal spray which did help his blocked nose and also his breathing quite a bit. I think this is the major reason for his apnea. He also thought about referring him for a sleep study but between the preventative meds and the nasal spray things settled down. He thinks this latest batch of symptoms have been triggered by amild cold virus and the aftermath of his "medication holiday". (Another long and involved story). He is back on his preventative medication now so it is just a matter of waiting for the meds to kick in and for the next appointment with the neuro to review it all again.

Last night it was the dreaded cramps again. His muscles in his legs cramp and go rock hard causing much distress. We have got much better at managing this through hot baths, massage and hot water bottles but no one in this house has had a full nights sleep for the last week. We are all a bit tired and fragile.

Thanks for the info. We will asking to have the sleep stuff investigated when we get this latest appointment.

Hi all,

Tried the worming one week ago now and have have 5 full peaceful nights sleep.

He had an abdominal migraine during the day on Sat but it did not result in the usual night time vomiting and despite going to bed in pain he slept through.

Generally he seems much more stable.

Who knows if the worming was a "cure" for the grinding or if it was just co-incidence. He had a really bad run of migraines each winter and has improved dramatically in spring so it could just be the timing. I just think everything we can do to make it better for him is worth investigating.

We are all feeling alot better with some uninterrupted sleep.

Thanks all for the imput.

Sleep is so important, I'm happy to hear you are all finally getting some.

What exactly is "worming?"

As far as the grinding goes, may you could look into a mouth guard for children that they wear when playing sports? A soft plastic/rubber thing you can mold to his teeth. Sporting good stores have them.....Just an idea of cours after you discuss it with your doctor first.

Hi All

No wonder you guys were confused about the whole "worms" thing. I have just realised that it is Aussie speak for "intestinal parasites". Apparently the most common cause of bruxism or teeth grinding in young children is pin worms (thread worms in Oz).

"Worming" just involves giving a tablet to eradicate the intestinal parasites and these are avaliable here from any pharmacy. The most common way children pick them up is through interaction with animals and we have a cat and a dog.

The Paediactrian also treated him with a course of Flagyl (an antibiotic) incase it was giardia (more intestinal parasites) causing all the vomiting and tummy ache. He said it is easier to treat it and rule it out rather than test for it with repeated stool samples.

Saw the dentist yesterday and she checked out his teeth and jaw and felt it was not appropriate to do anything for him at the moment and a mouthgard would just make it more difficult for him to breath at night given he is still quite young. The appointment was however extremely stressful for me but I think that's a whole new topic.

All is still good with Ollie at the moment so heres hoping that he is over the worst of it.

Thanks again for all the help, advice and support.

We have pin worms here, although I never heard of teeth grinding in assoication with them... interesting.