In an Op-Ed recently written for the Boston Business Journal, John Dunlop, Vice President of pharmaceutical company Amgen, wrote that the cost of migraine care in the US is untenable. The cost of caring for migraines is just too high. The high cost might be bearable if care actually worked, but it doesn’t, leading to extremely high costs in terms of supplemental care and lost productivity.
The High Cost to Families
Migraines lead to excessive costs to both individuals and the economy. Individual families that include a migraine sufferer may pay 70% more in healthcare costs annually than families that don’t include a migraine sufferer. Research is ongoing about the reliance of these families on emergency room visits, inpatient care, and outpatient care. Hopefully new discoveries can help us figure out how to relieve this burden from families.
But the monetary cost is just a small part of the individual cost. Migraines also lead people to avoid family and personal leisure activities, leading to a diminished quality of life.
And because migraines may make it hard for people to make it to work regularly, they can make it hard for people to keep a job or advance in those jobs.
To try to control the personal and professional cost of migraines, many people turn to preventive treatments for migraines. But these often come with challenges (and expenses) of their own. Compliance is hard, and people often experience drug side effects related to their treatment. Plus, results are only partial.
As a result, many people give up on preventive treatments in less than a year.
High Cost to the Economy
But the cost of migraines to families is only part of the overall cost to society. All those days when people can’t make it to work? That’s a cost to employers in the form of lost productivity. People also lose productivity when they avoid work because of their migraines.
Indirect costs like this account for about 70% of the total cost of migraine, which is about $78 billion a year.
Control the Cost of Your Migraines
Is the cost of your migraines untenable to you and your family? TMJ treatment may be able to help. Temporomandibular joint disorder can increase your risk of headaches. In fact, increasing headache frequency and intensity is a warning sign for TMJ. Not everyone with migraines has TMJ, but for those who do, TMJ treatment can make a world of difference.
TMJ treatment is also drug-free, so there’s no risk of drug side effects. Compliance is easy, and it can make it much easier for you to enjoy life activities and be productive at work.
If you want to learn whether TMJ treatment in New Jersey can help with your migraines, please call (201) 343-4044 today for an appointment with TMJ dentist Dr. Marlen Martirossian at the River Edge Dental Center for TMJ, Sleep Apnea, & Reconstructive Dentistry.
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