Riverside, California (NAPSI) - Worrying about work can cause a headache but frequent headaches can also disrupt work and negatively affect careers. Fortunately, learning more about the causes of debilitating migraines can lead to more effective treatment.

Here are some headache facts:

• In theU.S., one in six women and one in 12 men experience migraine pain. The World Health Organization reports that migraines are a leading cause of absenteeism and decreased work productivity, exacting a higher price to society than other chronic conditions including asthma, depression, diabetes and heart disease.

• Forty-five million Americans are thought to experience regular headaches that adversely affect their lives. The market for painkillers is huge—estimated at $2 billion annually. But the cost of headaches in theU.S.goes deeper—people who suffer badly from headaches have regular time off work and around 157 million working days are lost each year.

• Three-quarters of all migraine sufferers are women. Overall, migraines affect one in every 10 adults in the world, with most migraine attacks experienced by people between the ages of 25 and 55. Ethnic origin is also an important factor—Caucasians are most at risk.

There are some lucky people around who report never having had a headache. The World Headache Alliance estimates that 10 percent of men and 5 percent of women have never experienced a single headache. For some unknown reason, migraines are apparently nonexistent inJapan.

• One surprising fact about migraines is that they may be caused by a misalignment of your teeth, known as a bad bite, or malocclusion. Improper occlusion plays a role in head and neck pain. If you experience frequent headaches, you should consider visiting a neuromuscular dentist.

Neuromuscular dentists have special postgraduate training from the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies (LVI) and computerized measuring equipment that allows them to determine a person’s anatomically correct bite-the optimal, pain-free position of the jaw. They can then make an orthotic, which resembles an athlete’s mouthguard, and place the jaw in this position. In many cases, patients taking prescription headache medications for years report complete relief and stop taking drugs.

“Less than 5 percent of the dentists in the world are trained in neuromuscular dentistry,” says LVI’s Dr. Mark Duncan.

Learn more and find a neuromuscular dentist near you at www.leadingdentists.com.