From Jaw Tension to Migraines: The Overlooked Link Between Bruxism and Headache Pain

By Randy Clare | The Clenching Chronicle | June 2025

Have you ever woken up with a pounding headache, sore temples, or tightness in your jaw—and assumed it was just a bad night’s sleep or too much screen time? You’re not alone.

Headaches are among the leading causes of lost productivity worldwide, second only to lower back pain. But what many professionals don’t realize is that recurring headaches, especially migraines, may be rooted in something much closer to your jaw: unconscious clenching and grinding, a behavior known as bruxism.

In this issue of The Clenching Chronicle, we’ll unpack how bruxism contributes to headaches and migraines, why it often goes undiagnosed, and what you can do to find lasting relief—starting with awareness.

What Exactly Is Bruxism?

Bruxism is the clinical term for habitual jaw clenching, teeth grinding, or forward jaw thrusting. It can happen while you’re fully awake—often when you’re concentrating, stressed, or emotionally triggered—or while you sleep.

There are two primary forms:

• Awake bruxism: Usually triggered by stress, anxiety, or hyperfocus. You may not realize you’re clenching your jaw until the pain sets in, or someone points it out.
• Sleep bruxism: Happens unconsciously at night and can involve intense muscle contractions—up to six times the force used while eating. This often leads to morning headaches, jaw soreness, and even dental damage.

Bruxism can wear down your teeth, overwork your jaw muscles, and inflame nearby nerves. When left unaddressed, it often becomes a silent contributor to chronic head and face pain—especially migraines.

Not All Headaches Are Created Equal

The word “headache” is used loosely in conversation, but understanding the different types of head pain is essential—especially if you're trying to get to the root of your discomfort.

• Tension headaches feel like a tight band around your head or a dull ache in the back of your skull. They’re the most common and often linked to stress or poor posture.
• Migraines are far more intense. They can last for hours or days, come with nausea or sensitivity to light and sound, and typically occur on one side of the head. Triggers can include stress, poor sleep, hormones—or, increasingly recognized, jaw tension.

That’s right: clenching your jaw may be one of the missing links between your daily stress and your most painful headaches.

The Missing Connection: How Bruxism Triggers Migraines

So how exactly does grinding or clenching your teeth lead to head pain?

The answer lies in your trigeminal nerve—one of the most important facial nerves, responsible for sensation in your face and controlling the muscles used for chewing. It’s also a key player in many migraine pathways.

When you clench your jaw or grind your teeth, you overstimulate this nerve and the muscles surrounding it. That can spark a cascade of neurological signals that ultimately result in a migraine. You may not even notice the clenching—but your nervous system does.

It’s why you might wake up with a migraine after a stressful day or a restless night, or why tension in your face seems to creep into your temples, eyes, and even your neck and shoulders.

Are You Clenching Without Knowing It?

Most people with bruxism have no idea they’re doing it—until the pain becomes impossible to ignore.

Here are a few subtle (but important) signs to watch for:

• Morning headaches or a feeling of heaviness in your temples
• Jaw soreness or stiffness, especially after sleep or long periods of focus
• Tooth wear, fractures, or chips your dentist can’t explain
• Clicking or popping sounds in your jaw when opening wide
• Pain behind the eyes, around the ears, or in your neck
• Trouble opening your mouth fully or discomfort when chewing

These symptoms aren’t random—they’re often the body’s way of alerting you to jaw overuse. The problem is, many professionals ignore them for months or years, attributing them to stress, bad posture, or “just one of those things.”

But if you clench or grind regularly, these small warning signs can snowball into chronic pain—and costly dental or medical treatments.

Why Professionals Are Especially at Risk

If you work in a high-pressure environment—sales, marketing, tech, healthcare—you’re more likely to clench your jaw without realizing it.

You might be holding tension during Zoom calls, stuck in traffic, or even chewing gum for hours as a way to concentrate. These behaviors may feel normal, but they keep your jaw muscles in a state of constant engagement.

And once those muscles are locked into that pattern, they begin to affect your sleep, your ability to relax, and your overall quality of life.

The Power of Pain Journaling

One of the most effective tools for connecting the dots between your bruxism and your headaches is a pain journal.

Every day, jot down:

• When your head, face, or jaw pain starts
• Where you feel it (temples, behind the eyes, jaw, shoulders)
• What kind of pain it is (sharp, dull, throbbing)
• What you were doing beforehand (e.g., deep focus, conflict, poor sleep)
• How long it lasted
• Whether your jaw felt tight, tired, or sore

Over time, this simple practice can reveal surprising patterns. Maybe your migraines follow high-stakes meetings, poor posture, or late-night screen time. Maybe it’s something you chew, like gum or tough snacks. Your journal helps you see what your nervous system already knows.

What You Can Do: Tools and Strategies That Work

Bruxism and migraine management starts with awareness—but it doesn’t end there. Fortunately, there are several proven tools that can help you retrain your jaw and reduce painful episodes.

1. Relax Your Jaw

Adopt the resting jaw posture: Lips together. Teeth apart. Tongue on the roof of your mouth. Check in with yourself regularly—especially while working or driving.

Pros: Simple, no-cost, and highly effective. Cons: Requires conscious effort and reminders.

2. Try Biofeedback

Biofeedback devices like ClenchAlert® detect clenching and provide a gentle vibration to remind you to relax your jaw. Over time, this builds body awareness and helps disrupt unconscious patterns.

Pros: Wearable, discreet, non-invasive, and behaviorally effective. Cons: Requires consistent wear.

3. Use a Custom Night Guard

If you grind your teeth while sleeping, a dentist-fitted night guard can protect your enamel and reduce muscle strain.

Pros: Prevents damage, widely accepted treatment. Cons: Doesn’t address the daytime habit or root cause.

4. Manage Stress

Mindfulness, yoga, breathwork, and journaling can reduce the stress that drives clenching.

Pros: Benefits go beyond jaw pain—great for emotional health too. Cons: Requires daily practice and consistency.

5. Seek Professional Support

Your dentist can identify tooth wear and guide you toward proper treatment. In some cases, a referral to a TMJ specialist or orofacial pain expert may be appropriate.

Pros: Access to customized care and diagnostics. Cons: May require multiple appointments and follow-up.

6. Consider Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

If anxiety or chronic stress is driving your bruxism, therapy can help change the way you respond to triggers—and relieve the tension before it starts.

Pros: Addresses the root cause of many clenching behaviors. Cons: Longer-term investment in behavior change.

7. Explore Botox for Severe Cases

In some cases, Botox injections into overactive jaw muscles can reduce grinding and prevent migraine flare-ups.

Pros: Provides targeted muscle relief. Cons: Temporary, and requires medical oversight.

Final Thought: Awareness Is the First Step Toward Relief

If you’ve made it this far, you’re already on the path to change. That tension you’ve been feeling—behind your eyes, across your forehead, deep in your jaw—it’s real. And it’s not just stress. It may be a signal that your body’s been sending for years, asking for a different way.

Bruxism doesn’t always announce itself loudly. Sometimes it creeps in quietly during moments of deep concentration or stress. But when you start to connect it with the headaches you’ve been fighting, it opens the door to meaningful relief.

Start today by listening to your body. Keep a journal. Talk to your provider. Consider a tool like ClenchAlert that makes unconscious habits visible.

Because the moment you understand the connection between your jaw and your headaches, you gain the power to interrupt the cycle—and reclaim your focus, energy, and well-being.

📬 Subscribe to The Clenching Chronicle for more insights into bruxism, facial pain, and practical tools for reclaiming comfort in high-performance lives.

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