When your child's jaw clicks and they complain of headaches

What follows combines several children's visits into one reconstructed account. It is not any one child's story, and anything that could identify someone has been removed.

How do children come in?

Their jaw makes a sound every time they open their mouth, and they come home from school and rest because of a headache. Some children also say they hear sounds in their ears.

Children aren't good at describing pain. So they often just say "my neck is stiff" or "I'm just tired," and it gets overlooked.

⚠️ Where should you look first?

If there's also a problem with how the teeth fit together, see a dentist first — especially when the upper teeth overlap the lower teeth too much.

Correcting how the teeth fit together isn't our role. What we look at is the strain that bite puts on the jaw and neck. We make this order clear.

If the headaches have newly gotten worse, or your child vomits in the morning or says something is wrong with their eyes, see a pediatrician or neurologist first.

Why would the jaw cause headaches?

When the jaw is pushed backward, the space the joint moves through narrows, and the muscles around the jaw keep working. That tension spreads to the muscles of the head and neck.

Nerves and muscles are packed around the ear, so when that area is under pressure, some children say they hear sounds in their ears.

How do we treat it?

We work on the neck and the area around the jaw together. Because children are still growing, they're less stiff than adults, and we use much gentler pressure.

We're even more careful with appliances for children than for adults. Applying force for a long time to growing bones can change other things, so if we decide to use one, we do it together with a dentist.

Together with parents, we check for habits like resting the chin on a hand, chewing on only one side, and sleeping face down. In practice, these have the biggest effect.

What are the limits of this approach?

We don't say that treating the jaw will change your child's height or grades. What we look at is pain, chewing function and sleep.

One more thing: some children get better on their own as they grow. So with children, we lean more toward watching and waiting than with adults.

Summary for parents

1. If there's a problem with how the teeth fit together, see a dentist first.
2. Children aren't good at describing pain, so it's often noticed late.
3. Tension around the jaw spreads to the head and neck and becomes a headache.
4. Chin resting, one-sided chewing and sleeping face down have the biggest effect in practice.
5. We don't say treating the jaw will change height or grades.

We look at the neck, jaw and back together. Only by finding where it started can we keep the same spot from stiffening up again and again.

If the same spot keeps stiffening, or the tension starts in your neck and climbs up to your head, come in and get measured. It doesn't take long to find where it started.

Progress differs from child to child, depending on their stage of growth and habits.