What Causes Sharp Pain At Front Of Head And Upper Respiratory Infection?

Brief Answer:
Headaches of a type referred to as TAC's

Detailed Answer:
Good morning. My name is Dr. Saghafi and I am a neurologist and headache specialist in the XXXXXXX OH area of the world. I notice you are sending us your question in from the Great State of Kansas. I'm sorry this has suddenly become a bother for you. While these types of pains are typically known to be benign still they can be very annoying and painful at times.

What you are describing as a sharp and stabbing pain lasting only a few seconds or less is referred to as a neuralgic type of pain. The technical name for such pains are TRIGEMINAL AUTONOMIC CEPHALGIAS (TAC). Another term can be ICE PICK HEADACHE. They can come with a frequency from 1-200 per day and can be very debilitating.

These occur when a nerve or group of nerves are being irritated for some reason. Often times when the irritation is removed the pains cease. However, if it cannot be discovered why the nerves are being irritated then, the condition will continue and need to be treated.

Usually, in cases such as you're describing I have my patients keep track of what is going on during the day at the time or shortly before (about 30-60 min) the pains hit. I also ask them to keep track of the number of times the pain strikes and how much time is being one and another. In your case there have been 4 episodes. I don't know if you mean to say that there have been 4 times where SEVERAL of these pains have struck over a period of time such as 20-30 min. or whether you mean you've only had 4 isolated instances occurring...in other words, once and done then, several days or weeks later, again...once and done.....

Have you changed anything in the past few weeks since this started happening? Anything different in your diet? Anything new with medications? You are on Prilosec according to your profile...is that new?

Once we gather all the pertinent information and get some baseline status data as to how often these are occurring and whether or not there are any triggers then, a treatment can be established. Believe it or not there are treatments available even though the pains are only seconds in duration.

Would you like me to email you a diary or Headache Log that you can begin keeping and that we can review and start tracking these things. In the mean time, again, my approach with my patients who start having these things out of the blue is to run some labs and other tests just to be sure that metabolically everything is clear since sometimes when we correct minor chemical derangements the problems clear up.

If you would like a diary then, please send me an email address and I will get one off to you and I can explain the details of the log and how to use it so as to come up with a good diagnosis that you can then, go to your local doctor with to see if they wish to take it from there with treatment or management.

If this information has been helpful and I've answered your question satisfactorily would you do me the favor of some written feedback and a STAR RATING of the answer. Should you have no further questions or comments to place- CLOSING THE QUERY would be greatly appreciated as well.

In the future I'm happy to answer more concerns personally if you'd allow me this privilege by going to the following website and sending me your questions:

bit.ly/drdariushsaghafi

This query has required 46 minutes of physician specific review, research, and final draft documentation for envoy to this point.

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