Apex Headache Clinic cleared my jaw pain, allowing me to enjoy life again

For 32-year-old admin manager Stephanie Cochrane from Belfast, life was a struggle. For 8 years she lived with constant jaw pain, which was awful. After trying everything to cure the pain with no relief, Stephanie visited Apex Headache Clinic, in a final attempt to get to the source of the problem. Here, she shares how the clinic’s unique regime of specialist manual physiotherapy treatment, called The Nelson Jaw ApproachTM, cleared her jaw pain, meaning that she could finally get her life back on track.

Stephanie, when did your jaw pain begin?

I experienced jaw pain for the first time 8 years ago and it has been part of my life ever since. It started with an audible pop, which was extremely painful. My GP referred me to the School of Dentistry and I was told that it was nothing to worry about as it was most likely stress related. I attended classes to reduce stress, took up yoga and wore a mouth guard, none of which did anything to help the pain. I returned 6 months later and was told to try chewing gum and left with a range of jaw exercises to do 3 times a day. I found these to be really irritating and they actually made the pain worse, so I eventually stopped doing them.

How did the pain affect your life?

It was awful. The whole left side of my face was painful. I felt like no one understood what it was like to live this way. It was extremely stressful, which in turn caused me more pain, as I’d click my jaw out of habit when I was anxious. I found that my speech was also affected because of this, I didn’t talk very much. My face and mouth were constantly sore and I was living with it frequently clicking and popping. The pain was so bad that I couldn’t even yawn.

What led you to Apex Headache Clinic?

Because I was desperate to find a cure, every few months I would check online to see if there were any new treatments I could try and I came across Apex Headache Clinic. With nothing to lose, I decided to book an appointment.

At my initial assessment, Michelle diagnosed the pain as stemming from my neck. She could actually pinpoint the exact source of it and I could feel it when she pressed it. I was so shocked, mainly because I had seen so many different people over the years and no one mentioned that this could have been a possibility. I now understood why everything I’d tried in the past hadn’t worked.

Initially, I attended Apex Headache Clinic twice a week before we reduced this to once a week. Over just a course of a few weeks, I noticed a gradual improvement and a couple of months later, the pain completely cleared. I couldn’t believe it!

How has your life changed since having treatment?

As well as being pain-free, I’ve seen a massive improvement in my speech. As an admin manager, talking is a big part of the job and it had definitely impacted on it. I also find that I can de-stress a lot quicker now because when I was stressed, this would cause more pain, which was a vicious circle.

What advise would you offer someone suffering from jaw pain?

You definitely need to go to Apex Headache Clinic. There’s no point in messing about with alternatives. I’d tried everything and this is the only thing in 8 years that has worked for me.

To book an appointment at Apex Headache Clinic, call 028 9048 4153. No GP referral is necessary.