If you experience any discomfort in your head, you should not self-medicate. After all, you are unlikely to be able to determine the cause of the pain. It can begin due to a fall or, conversely, an increase in pressure, neuralgia, become a consequence of an injury or a violation of cerebral circulation. You should pay special attention to the state of your he alth if you have a shooting pain in your head.
Causes of the problem
Most often, patients who complained to the doctor about severe discomfort in the occipital, temporal, frontal or parietal region, which come on suddenly, have neurogenic problems. Among the reasons for feeling like a gunshot in the head, the following are most often cited.
- Loss of peripheral sensory endings. The most common problems are with the trigeminal, glossopharyngeal nerves. Also, this group of causes includes toxic alcoholic polyneuropathy, tunnel syndromes of 5 and 9 pairs of cranial nerve endings.
- Problems withvegetative ganglia. These causes are caused by neuralgia of the pterygopalatine ganglion or intermediate nerve.
- Otolaryngology. Problems with the organs of smell and hearing cause sensations of what shoots in the head. The cause of such pain is purulent otitis, which affects the pyramid of the temporal bone, purulent mastoiditis, sinusitis in the acute phase.
- Ophthalmology. Pain occurs during purulent inflammatory processes in the orbits, in which the nerve endings are affected.
- Problems with the osteoarticular apparatus. Feelings of backache appear with arthritis and osteomyelitis in the temporomandibular regions.
This is not a complete list of causes of problems. In more rare cases, backache occurs due to osteochondrosis of the spine, tumors, cysts or abscesses in some part of the brain, an artery aneurysm.
Pain localization
Some patients can't even describe exactly where the discomfort occurs when they visit the doctor. They can only point to the problematic 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.
- Frontal lobe. Most often, patients point to the right side of the face above the superciliary arch.
- Temporal pain. It is in this area that a large number of nerve endings and pain receptors are concentrated.
- Parietal localization. Many nerve trunks branch in the region of the crown - this is the reasonthe appearance of pain in this area of the head.
- Occipital region. Shooting in this place occurs in most cases after a sharp turn of the head, in some patients clear zones can be distinguished, when touched, a sudden pain appears.
Shooting in and around the ears
Given that one of the possible causes of pain is diseases of the ears, nose or inflammation of the lymph nodes, an ENT consultation may be necessary to make a diagnosis. Only this specialist can determine if you have otitis, sinusitis or sinusitis. After all, these diseases lead to the fact that a person feels like shooting in the head behind the ear.
In most cases, if the cause of pain is any of the listed diseases, it means that it passes with the formation of pus, which irritates the nerve endings and causes sharp discomfort. Such ailments require antibiotic therapy, in some cases physiotherapy is prescribed. If you feel that you are shooting in your 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 general well-being and constant pain, so it is quite difficult to miss such a disease.
Diagnosis
If unpleasant sharp sensations occur infrequently, end quickly enough and are of a periodic nature, then in most cases people do not see a reason to contactto the doctor. However, you should not let the disease take its course or try to self-medicate 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 an ENT specialist (to exclude sinusitis, sinusitis, otitis media and other similar problems) and a neurologist. Only a comprehensive examination will allow us to draw a conclusion about the cause of pain.
At the same time, you should not refuse diagnostics, because the problem can be eliminated only if the cause of its occurrence is accurately determined. It is also important to know that the doctor cannot make a correct diagnosis if the patient simply tells him what is shooting in the head on the right or left. For diagnosis, it is important to know the frequency of these pains, their duration, the factors provoking their onset, and other features.
Treatment
No specialist can prescribe treatment without a preliminary examination. To begin with, possible otolaryngological problems should be excluded and examined by a neurologist. If it shoots in the head due to inflammation of the nerve endings, then the patient will be prescribed thermal, physiotherapeutic or water procedures, massage of pain points, and medication. The last item includes taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, vitamins belonging to group B, blockade of pain points with anesthetics.
Procedures
If a patient complains of shooting in the head, doctors advise using heat. In a hospital setting,the problem area can be applied with paraffin, make compresses with dimexide, apply half-alcohol lotions. In addition, physiotherapeutic procedures are often prescribed: electrophoresis, laser therapy, UHF, iontophoresis, magnetic exposure, galvanic current. The greatest effect from them is observed in cases where one or another nerve is 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. It can be an ordinary woolen scarf that is wrapped around the problem area. At the same time, it is important to ensure that this place does not get supercooled in the future.
Drug therapy
If the doctor has established that neuralgia is the cause of the backache in the head, then, in addition to the procedures, a number of drugs will be prescribed. The usual medications in such cases include anticonvulsants and painkillers. For example, if a patient complains that he often shoots in the head, then he may be prescribed drugs such as Ketanov, Indomethacin, Dexalgin. In case of persistent pain, blockades are carried out using solutions with Lidocaine, Bupivacaine, Novocain. Injection points are located behind the ear, near the superciliary part or in the area of the jaw composition.
Vitamins belonging to group B help to enhance the effect of therapy. So, the following drugs can be prescribed to patients: Neurobex, Cyanocobalamin, Thiamine, Milgama, Pyridoxine.
Effectiveness of treatment
Not noticing a positive result from therapy in the very first days, patients are disappointed both in the doctor and in the methods of treatment prescribed to them. However, many do not want to think that chronic problems cannot be eliminated in 2-3 days. Their treatment should be comprehensive and long enough. But if you go to the doctor in the very first days of the appearance of unpleasant sensations, when there is still an acute stage of the inflammatory process in the nerve endings, then the effect of therapy will be noticeable almost immediately. In addition, getting rid of the problem with early treatment will be much easier, and treatment will take much less time.
