Posted by Donna (63.26.214.91) on May 23, 2001 at 15:04:28:
In Reply to: Dentist and clusters? posted by Tony S on May 23, 2001 at 10:59:39:
The way I understand it is:
The hypothalamus is instrumental, in some way,
in the occurance of cluster headaches. It also
has overall control over the sympathetic nervous
system, which controls the internal body organs.
Under certain conditions, it causes faster heart
beat, faster breathing, widening of the pupils,
increase in blood flow to the muscles (whereby
comes the "fight or flight" response).
The hypothalamus receives info from sense organs
regarding glucose levels in the blood, the body's
water content, and it stimulates appetite for food.
It is involved in regulating sleep, motivating
sexual behavior and determines mood and emotions.
It has nerve connections to most other regions of
the nervous system. Signals are sent from higher
regions of the brain to the hypothalamus, which
initiates sympathetic nervous system activity.
The Trigeminal nerve arrises from the pons and
divides into three main branches, which then sub-
divide into a complex network of nerves,
supplying sensation to the face, scalp, nose, teeth,
lining of the mouth, upper eyelid, sinuses and front
2/3's of the of the tongue. It controls the pro-
duction of saliva and tears and stimulates contractions
of the jaw muscles which are responsible for chewing.
Any one area of the trigeminal nerve may cause referred
pain in another area supplied by a different branch of
the nerve.
And this could be an explanation of why your teeth hurt, etc.