Shoots in the head - what to do? The cause of shooting pain in the head

If any unpleasant sensations occur in the head, do not self-medicate. After all, you can hardly determine the cause of the pain. It can begin because of a fall or, on the contrary, increased pressure, neuralgia, a consequence of trauma or cerebral circulation. Particular attention should be paid to the state of their health, if there was a shooting pain in the head.

Causes of the problem

Most often, patients who have complained to the doctor for severe unpleasant sensations in the occipital, temporal, frontal or parietal areas that occur suddenly reveal problems of a neurogenic nature. Among the reasons for the sensation, as if shooting in the head, the following are most often called.

1. Affection of peripheral sensory tips. The most common problems with trigeminal, glossopharyngeal nerves. Also to this group of reasons include toxic alcohol polyneuropathy, tunnel syndromes 5 and 9 pairs of craniocerebral nerve endings.
2. Problems with autonomic ganglia. These causes are caused by the neuralgia of the pterygoid or intermediate nerve.
3. Otolaryngology. Problems with the organs of smell and hearing cause sensations of what shoots in the head. The cause of these pains are purulent otitis, as a result of which the pyramid of the temporal bone, purulent mastoiditis, sinusitis in the acute phase is affected.
4. Ophthalmology. Pain occurs with purulent inflammatory processes in the eye sockets, in which the nerve endings are affected.
5. Problems with the osteoarticular apparatus. Sensations of lumbago appear with arthritis and osteomyelitis in the temporomandibular divisions.

This is not yet a complete list of reasons causing problems. In more rare cases, lumbago occurs due to osteochondrosis of the spine, tumors, cysts or abscesses in some part of the brain, an aneurysm of the artery.

Localization of pain

Some patients on a visit to a doctor can not even describe where exactly discomfort occurs. They can only point to the problem part of the head. It should be noted that in medical practice there are no cases of describing bilateral lumbago. As a rule, shooting pain in the head occurs in certain places.

1. Frontal lobe. Most often, patients point to the right side of the face above the brow.
2. Temporal pain. It is on this site that a large number of nerve endings and pain receptors are concentrated.
3. Dark localization. Many nerve trunks branch into the area of the temples - this is the cause of the pain in this part of the head.
4. Occipital region. Shoots in this place occur in most cases after a sharp turn of the head, in some patients it is possible to identify clear zones, when touched, there is a sudden pain.

Shoots in the ears and the area around them

Given that one of the possible causes of pain are diseases of the ears, nose or inflammation of the lymph nodes, the diagnosis of ENT may be necessary to diagnose. Only this specialist can determine if you have otitis, sinusitis, or sinusitis. After all, these diseases lead to what a person feels like shooting in the head behind the ear.

In most cases, if the cause of the pain is any of the listed diseases, then it goes with the formation of pus, which irritates the nerve endings and causes sharp unpleasant sensations. Such ailments require antibiotic therapy, in some cases physiotherapy procedures are prescribed. If you feel that shooting in the head behind your ear, then you need to see a doctor as soon as possible, so as not to worsen your condition. Although in most cases, purulent diseases are accompanied by fever, deterioration in overall well-being and constant pain, it is therefore difficult to miss such a disease.

Diagnostics

If unpleasant sharp sensations occur infrequently, quickly enough end and are of a periodic nature, in most cases people do not see an excuse to consult a doctor. However, you should not let the disease into its own right or try to engage in self-medication when it shoots in the head. What to do in this case, only a competent specialist should decide. First of all, you need to visit the ENT (to exclude sinusitis, sinusitis, otitis and other similar problems) and a neurologist. Only a comprehensive survey will lead to a conclusion about the cause of pain.

In this case, you should not abandon the diagnosis, because you can solve the problem only if it is determined precisely the cause of its occurrence. It is also important to know that a doctor can not correctly diagnose if the patient simply tells him that he shoots in the head on the right or on the left. For diagnostics it is important to know the periodicity of these pains, their duration, the factors provoking their onset, and other features.

Treatment

No specialist can prescribe treatment without a preliminary examination. For the beginning it is necessary to exclude possible otolaryngological problems and to pass or take place inspection at the neurologist. If he shoots his head due to inflammation of the nerve endings, the patient will be assigned thermal, physiotherapeutic or water procedures, massage of pain points, medical treatment. The last item includes taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, vitamins belonging to group B, blockade of pain points with anesthetics.

Procedures

If the patient complains that he shoots in the head, then doctors advise using heat. In a hospital in a hospital, a paraffin can be applied to the problem area, compresses with dimexide should be applied, and half-alcoholic lotions applied. In addition, physiotherapy procedures are often prescribed: electrophoresis, laser therapy, UHF, iontophoresis, magnetic action, galvanic current. The greatest effect from them is observed in those cases when one or another nerve has blown in a draft. In some situations with superficial neuralgia it is recommended to do a light massage of pain points.

For patients treated at home, it is recommended to use dry heat. This can be an ordinary woolen shawl, which is wrapped around the problem area. It is important to ensure that this place is not supercooled in the future.

Medication Therapy

If the doctor found that neuralgia is the reason for the lumbago in the head, then in addition to the procedures, a number of medications will be prescribed. To usual in such cases medicines carry anticonvulsant and anaesthetising agents. For example, if a patient complains that he often shoots in his head, he may be prescribed drugs such as "Ketanov", "Indomethacin", "Dexalgin". In the case of persistent pain, blockades are carried out using solutions with "Lidocaine", "Bupivacaine", "Novocain". The injection points are located behind the ear, near the superciliary part or in the region of the jawbone.

Vitamins related to group B help to increase the effect of therapy. Thus, patients can be prescribed the following drugs: Neurobeks, Cyanocobalamin, Thiamine, Milgama, Pyridoxine.

Effectiveness of treatment

Not noticing the positive result from therapy in the first days, patients are disappointed both in the doctor and in the methods of treatment prescribed by him. However, many people do not want to think that chronic problems can not be eliminated in 2-3 days. Their treatment should be comprehensive and sufficiently long. But if you see a doctor in the first days of the appearance of unpleasant sensations, when there is still an acute stage of the inflammatory process in the nerve endings, the effect of therapy will be noticeable almost immediately. In addition, getting rid of the problem with early treatment will be much easier, and the treatment will take much less time.