Palate Expander and frequent headaches

[Tiramisu]

Checking out a long shot...I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with a palate expander and chronic headaches. Dd9 has been having headaches very frequently. Honestly, I think these headaches precede the expander, but I could be wrong. In the beginning, I didn't worry about them too much because they were mild and infrequent and only happened at school. Over time, though, they've become more frequent. They were not an issue at all while we were turning the expander. We haven't been turning for two months and now they've become worse.

 

The headaches happen at recess and gym or during other physical activity, which makes me think there shouldn't be a connection with the expander.

 

Also, the orthodontist decided to make two turns back to relieve any pressure, but it hasn't helped.

 

FWIW, we've kept a diary and there's no connection with food or improvement with eliminating common migraine triggers. The next step is two to three weeks on an antihisitimine. Then the pediatrician will move onto bloodwork and an MRI.

 

Dd had a significant crossbite and near underbite. These were the reasons for the expander. One older dd had the same problems, and they were very successfully helped with the expander.

 

Thanks for any thoughts you can share.

[fairfarmhand]

I don't know if this helps, but as a teen with braces (and and expander), I would get nosebleeds every time I got my braces tightened. It seems to me that all of that stuff in your head is connected in one way or another. Although with the details you provided, I would be hesitant to definitively say it was the expander, but it is not completely impossible.

[Bang!Zoom!]

I used to get a weird kind of migraine called an ocular migraine, turns out it was from a magnesium deficiency, which when low causes one to grind the teeth at points during the day and cause muscle/temple tension, which in turn leads to migraines.

 

I don't know if that's helpful at all, but just thought I'd throw that in.

[cheryl h]

My two oldest only got headaches when they first got the expander, but not much at all after that. After the precautions your ortho has already taken, I wouldn't think the expander is the issue. From what you describe, I would be suspect that she is maybe a little dehydrated. Maybe if she was deliberate for a day about her water consumption, she might feel better after that. Hope you figure it out. Headaches are a little worrysome when you can't figure out why they are happening.:grouphug:

[Mom-ninja.]

:iagree: dehydration is a common cause for headaches. As is tooth grinding/clenching.

 

She may be clenching her jaws together while sleeping. I do this and I will have a bad headache if I do it often. The ortho can check to see if it is clenching or grinding. There are usually signs in the mouth or on teeth.

[Tiramisu]

Thank you all.:grouphug:

 

The orthodontist did bring up the grinding/clenching possibility. Neither she or the dentist saw any signs of this happening, but suggested it as an explanation of what could cause headaches. This would be particularly possible because she is getting used to her new bite and is feeling it out. Last week, the dentist actually shaved down a tooth just a touch to take pressure of a point where the teeth we hitting hard, it helped a sore spot but not the headaches.

 

This dd drinks a lot, and since this became an issue, I've been asking her to make sure she's drinking.

 

The saddest thing about all this is that lately she's not been wanting to participate in activities she usually enjoys. I don't know if it's related or not, but I brought it up to the pediatrician.

 

Thanks for the hint about magnesium, if we wind up going for bloodwork, I'll ask for that. I'd try it now, but we're on track to start the antihistimine trial and I'd like to stick with one thing at a time. Maybe I can try a little magnesium after that. We have a fizzy supplement on hand.:001_smile:

[SJ.]

I had an expander for the same problems and I don't remember having headaches. I remember sometimes having pressure, but not headaches. Are you open to chiropractic care? It may help with the headaches.

 

I hope your daughter feels better soon.

 

SJ

[Guest debbieb]

My 11 year old daughter has been suffering from daily headaches for almost a year.  She had a lot of ortho work done in August 2014, four baby teeth pulled, a palatte expander, top braces and night brace.  She started to develop headaches in mid October of 2014.  We have taken her to three different neurologists, two neurosurgeons and a slew of other doctors.  Blood work for lyme disease, celiac disease, epstenn barre, infections…….  She has had mri's of her brain with and without contrast (twice once with palette expander and once without it), mri of spine, neck, facial orbits, tmj. All mri's did not show anything.  We went a to TMJ specialist who says her bite is slightly off but not enough to cause daily headaches.  All her ortho appliances were removed in Dec of 2014.  We changed orthodontist in December after I felt he was too aggressive and could have caused these headaches.  The new ortho was treating her for TMJ, she wore a bite plate for 2 months and had physical therapy on her mouth for 6 weeks, twice a a week.  NO relief.  The neurologist has started a second round of meds to try and break the headache cycle.  She was on toprimate for 6 weeks.  It did  not help. She is now on Amitripylyne for three weeks.  She drinks plenty of water and has been taking Magnesium, B2 and C0-Q10 for a few weeks, which are all vitamins that are supposed to help migraines.  Her headaches are all day, every day.  They are manageable except if she decides to be a kid and have any physical activity  the intensity of the migraine increases.  Many times, one day of activity will cause her to be couch or bed ridden for a day.  She is becoming withdrawn and inactive.  She does not want to socialize with her friends.  We are looking for some insight.

 

I am very curious to know what happened with your daughter.  I know it was a few years ago, and I hope you were able to find a solution for your daughter's headaches.  

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Deb 

[umsami]

I totally think this could be linked.  

 

I would also check for TMJ and grinding because this can occur around that time.   For grinding, and easy way is to have your child clench your jaw, while you put a flat hand on the side of their head.  You will feel the temporals muscle pop out.  In that same area, press, around and see if it's painful.  You can also press on the masseter muscle and look for trigger points.  

 

A massage therapist trained in NMT or in craniosacral therapy may help.  

[SanDiegoMom]

My 11 year old daughter has been suffering from daily headaches for almost a year. She had a lot of ortho work done in August 2014, four baby teeth pulled, a palatte expander, top braces and night brace. She started to develop headaches in mid October of 2014. We have taken her to three different neurologists, two neurosurgeons and a slew of other doctors. Blood work for lyme disease, celiac disease, epstenn barre, infections……. She has had mri's of her brain with and without contrast (twice once with palette expander and once without it), mri of spine, neck, facial orbits, tmj. All mri's did not show anything. We went a to TMJ specialist who says her bite is slightly off but not enough to cause daily headaches. All her ortho appliances were removed in Dec of 2014. We changed orthodontist in December after I felt he was too aggressive and could have caused these headaches. The new ortho was treating her for TMJ, she wore a bite plate for 2 months and had physical therapy on her mouth for 6 weeks, twice a a week. NO relief. The neurologist has started a second round of meds to try and break the headache cycle. She was on toprimate for 6 weeks. It did not help. She is now on Amitripylyne for three weeks. She drinks plenty of water and has been taking Magnesium, B2 and C0-Q10 for a few weeks, which are all vitamins that are supposed to help migraines. Her headaches are all day, every day. They are manageable except if she decides to be a kid and have any physical activity the intensity of the migraine increases. Many times, one day of activity will cause her to be couch or bed ridden for a day. She is becoming withdrawn and inactive. She does not want to socialize with her friends. We are looking for some insight.

 

I am very curious to know what happened with your daughter. I know it was a few years ago, and I hope you were able to find a solution for your daughter's headaches.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Deb

I have a friend who had migraines everyday from childhood up until last year- it turned out she was highly allergic to tons of food- not sure if it was Celiac or what, but she severely limited her diet abd took out gluten, dairy, and ... I'm not sure what else. I can ask her for more details. But I just remember her saying what a huge relief it was to have the headaches finally gone.

[mamakelly]

My 11 year old daughter has been suffering from daily headaches for almost a year.  She had a lot of ortho work done in August 2014, four baby teeth pulled, a palatte expander, top braces and night brace.  She started to develop headaches in mid October of 2014.  We have taken her to three different neurologists, two neurosurgeons and a slew of other doctors.  Blood work for lyme disease, celiac disease, epstenn barre, infections…….  She has had mri's of her brain with and without contrast (twice once with palette expander and once without it), mri of spine, neck, facial orbits, tmj. All mri's did not show anything.  We went a to TMJ specialist who says her bite is slightly off but not enough to cause daily headaches.  All her ortho appliances were removed in Dec of 2014.  We changed orthodontist in December after I felt he was too aggressive and could have caused these headaches.  The new ortho was treating her for TMJ, she wore a bite plate for 2 months and had physical therapy on her mouth for 6 weeks, twice a a week.  NO relief.  The neurologist has started a second round of meds to try and break the headache cycle.  She was on toprimate for 6 weeks.  It did  not help. She is now on Amitripylyne for three weeks.  She drinks plenty of water and has been taking Magnesium, B2 and C0-Q10 for a few weeks, which are all vitamins that are supposed to help migraines.  Her headaches are all day, every day.  They are manageable except if she decides to be a kid and have any physical activity  the intensity of the migraine increases.  Many times, one day of activity will cause her to be couch or bed ridden for a day.  She is becoming withdrawn and inactive.  She does not want to socialize with her friends.  We are looking for some insight.

 

I am very curious to know what happened with your daughter.  I know it was a few years ago, and I hope you were able to find a solution for your daughter's headaches.  

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Deb 

 

I'm so sorry to hear that your dd has been feeling bad :-( Several years ago, my middle son was very sick with pneumonia. It took him about a month to recover, and he was left with terrible migraines. There were days and weeks where he barely got out of bed. It was awful. We tried everything, and no doctor seemed to be able to find a solution or cause of the migraines. That had all sorts of wacky theories from, he's dehydrated to vitamin deficient, to he has an unknown disease etc...He suffered for a year before we finally came upon a few solutions.

 

The first was I took him to this scientist doctor Hugh Smith. www.biocytonics.com They do blood analysis. When we looked at just one drop of my son's blood under a microscope, we saw all sorts parasites (which ironically I had just been diagnosed with myself at my MD's office, right around the same time. ), overgrowth of yeast etc...They got him started on a several natural supplements, which within a few months started to give him some relief. He made steady progress with Dr. Smith and Justice for about a year, but the migraines were still not completely gone. Finally Justice suggested that I take him to see a craniosacral therapist. My chiropractor happened to be trained in craniosacral therapy, so I took him to see her. She felt his head for a few minutes and then had me feel the top of it. I kid you not, it was like his skull came to a point at the top. She said that it was like his cranial bones were "stuck". It could have been all the coughing, it could have been a growth spurt or a combination of both. She saw my ds every week for a few weeks and it was like instant relief for him. He also grew several inches within that few months. It really did seem like all his skull bones were crammed together. It's been 5 years, and he maybe gets one headache a month now. I take him in, and she works on him, and then he's fine. It sounds really woooo weird, I know. I was desperate, so I was willing to try anything and thankfully this worked. I know a lot of people won't take their kids to chiropractors, much less ones who do craniosacral work and a dr who analyses blood sounds even stranger...BUt I've been where you are, so if my odd solutions help you, I'm glad to put it out there. You probably aren't near San Diego, but you can call or email Dr. Smith and his daughter Justice, I think they do phone consults or could help you find someone near you. Our chiropractor is Dr. Bridget Chelf at Ocean Wellness in Del Mar.  I'm sure if you explain your situation, she could help you find a reputable craniosacral therapist near you. http://www.oceanwellness.info/2014/07/09/dr-bridget-chelf-dc/

 

ETA- Oh and he did have an expander as a young child, and a tongue tie that was clipped...

[Tiramisu]

My 11 year old daughter has been suffering from daily headaches for almost a year.  She had a lot of ortho work done in August 2014, four baby teeth pulled, a palatte expander, top braces and night brace.  She started to develop headaches in mid October of 2014.  We have taken her to three different neurologists, two neurosurgeons and a slew of other doctors.  Blood work for lyme disease, celiac disease, epstenn barre, infections…….  She has had mri's of her brain with and without contrast (twice once with palette expander and once without it), mri of spine, neck, facial orbits, tmj. All mri's did not show anything.  We went a to TMJ specialist who says her bite is slightly off but not enough to cause daily headaches.  All her ortho appliances were removed in Dec of 2014.  We changed orthodontist in December after I felt he was too aggressive and could have caused these headaches.  The new ortho was treating her for TMJ, she wore a bite plate for 2 months and had physical therapy on her mouth for 6 weeks, twice a a week.  NO relief.  The neurologist has started a second round of meds to try and break the headache cycle.  She was on toprimate for 6 weeks.  It did  not help. She is now on Amitripylyne for three weeks.  She drinks plenty of water and has been taking Magnesium, B2 and C0-Q10 for a few weeks, which are all vitamins that are supposed to help migraines.  Her headaches are all day, every day.  They are manageable except if she decides to be a kid and have any physical activity  the intensity of the migraine increases.  Many times, one day of activity will cause her to be couch or bed ridden for a day.  She is becoming withdrawn and inactive.  She does not want to socialize with her friends.  We are looking for some insight.

 

I am very curious to know what happened with your daughter.  I know it was a few years ago, and I hope you were able to find a solution for your daughter's headaches.  

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Deb 

 

I'm so glad I caught this. I'm sorry for your dd's suffering. My dd finished the course of her palate expander. Her teeth are great and she will not need braces. No sign of the crossbite getting worse. But she continued to get headaches after the expander was removed.

 

I don't know if any of this information will help you, but this is how her headaches evolved: First of all, she had one virus after another the winter before last, and she started getting hives. I took her to the allergist because I noticed it was after eating sandwiches and drinking milk. It turned out she has allergies to wheat and milk. We took those things out of her diet strictly for six months and her immune system calmed down and now she can tolerate those things in small amounts. I'd like her to keep them out of her diet but it's hard for an active, young teen who is out of the house a lot. I'm not sure if any mild allergies contributed to the headaches but it's something to consider.

 

The next thing that came up was a serious period of depression brought on by friend issues. She has a tendency to become anxious and depressed before but this was different. She started with therapy and an SSRI. With the SSRI, her headaches seemed to come much less frequently. She also got fewer stomachaches. In the meanwhile, she started having more noticeable pollen allergies, and now she takes claritin, too. I hate having her on meds but the combo seems to help her a lot. She doesn't complain about headaches as much anymore and she's taking a lot less ibuprofen. I guess we exchanged one med for two others, but it's working. 

 

There might be something else that is worth investigating. I've had all of my dd's screened by a developmental/neurological optometrist (see covd.org) over the years. Two of them have had vision therapy. The other two he did not recommend therapy for. However, he did find a possible visual processing problem with my dd who gets the headaches. When she looks at a book, she can sometimes see the print can move on the page, and that is what alerted him. All of his tests could not find a typical ocular-motor cause. He suggested she could have Irlen Syndrome, which is a problem in the neural processing of different light waves. He believes is a true condition but much rarer than a lot of people think. Since he doesn't treat it, the cost of special glasses is expensive, and the treatments controversial, he recommend she use +1 reading glasses to take the pressure off her visual system so that she has an easier time while reading. This won't address an underlying visual processing issue but she feels it helps her read. I would like to get more tests that will tell us about her visual processing but those types of tests are educational and not medical, so it would not be covered by insurance, and dd is not willing now anyway.

 

So that's the long story. 

 

Because your dd is becoming anxious and withdrawn, it might be worth investigating treatment for depression. I know your dd is trying meds that may overlap in that area, so it might be complicated but it would be worth it. I really regret not treating depression issues sooner. Strangely, both of my dd's who are prone to depression also have crossbites and had palate expanders. Weird.

[Susan Thrower]

My 16 yr. old son also developed 24/7 headache pulsing in his temples 16 months ago.  We've been through every possible doctor evaluation, 2 MRIs, even alternative medicine with no results.  The only therapy that helped some was acupuncture so we had this treatment 3 times a week for 6 months.  We were able to cut the pain level in half and we stopped acupuncture because the impact leveled off.  We've also looked at several possible causes of past health challenges:

 

1.  Head Injury:  He had a head blow when he was 3.  He fell off a retaining wall and hit his left cheek on a second retaining wall on the fall down.  At the time his doctor did not see any follow-up needed.  Recently a chiropractor imaged his upper vertebrae and discovered misalignment left/right and up/down.  We had the Atlas adjustments, but this did not impact his headache pain.  

2.  Orthodonic:  His bite was off and his palete was not symmetrical, so he was recommended for an expander to push out the left side and then braces.  When I was cranking the expander, my son said he felt a shift in his cranial bones.

2.  Toxicity:  I had a body scan done by a natuorpath a few months ago.  She found his history of food poisioning, and viruses such as Epstein Barr, Toxoplasma Ghondi, and Nori.  She said he was full of toxicity.

3.  Allergies:  Dairy, our dog, and environmental factors.  My son gets sick often with coughing, especially in the fall and spring.

4.  School:  The headaches seem to accelerate at school.  He says within 30 minutes of being on campus the pain increases and continues through the day.  My son said he could not go to school if we could not find relief so this is when solving this became my full-time job.  The trail led to acupuncture which helped him tolerate school.    

 

I found this discussion helpful so I'll follow-up on some of these leads.  One of my son's friends also had these headaches, but in her frontal lobe and she can't exercise or be around loud music.  Her doctors found her neck muscles were not even.  A neck brace gave her headache-free days, so they are working on this trail now with physical therapy.

[mamiof5]

No words of wisdom, I am not familiar with any of this medical stuff. But many, many prayers for all your dear children who are struggling, or have been struggling for one reason other other. Our bodies are such a magnificent creation, but it's frightening to see how much can go wrong.

[Kelly C]

On 8/7/2015 at 4:44 PM, Guest debbieb said:

My 11 year old daughter has been suffering from daily headaches for almost a year.  She had a lot of ortho work done in August 2014, four baby teeth pulled, a palatte expander, top braces and night brace.  She started to develop headaches in mid October of 2014.  We have taken her to three different neurologists, two neurosurgeons and a slew of other doctors.  Blood work for lyme disease, celiac disease, epstenn barre, infections…….  She has had mri's of her brain with and without contrast (twice once with palette expander and once without it), mri of spine, neck, facial orbits, tmj. All mri's did not show anything.  We went a to TMJ specialist who says her bite is slightly off but not enough to cause daily headaches.  All her ortho appliances were removed in Dec of 2014.  We changed orthodontist in December after I felt he was too aggressive and could have caused these headaches.  The new ortho was treating her for TMJ, she wore a bite plate for 2 months and had physical therapy on her mouth for 6 weeks, twice a a week.  NO relief.  The neurologist has started a second round of meds to try and break the headache cycle.  She was on toprimate for 6 weeks.  It did  not help. She is now on Amitripylyne for three weeks.  She drinks plenty of water and has been taking Magnesium, B2 and C0-Q10 for a few weeks, which are all vitamins that are supposed to help migraines.  Her headaches are all day, every day.  They are manageable except if she decides to be a kid and have any physical activity  the intensity of the migraine increases.  Many times, one day of activity will cause her to be couch or bed ridden for a day.  She is becoming withdrawn and inactive.  She does not want to socialize with her friends.  We are looking for some insight.

 

I am very curious to know what happened with your daughter.  I know it was a few years ago, and I hope you were able to find a solution for your daughter's headaches.  

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Deb 

Did you ever figure the headaches out? This is literally my 11 year old right now!  Looking for any answers 

[Eos]

Zombie thread.  Hopefully the OP's kid has had her braces off for years...