My Mask: How To Keep Face Coverings From Becoming A Pain In The Neck

Katie Pudhorodsky is a licensed massage therapist, practicing in East Austin. She teaches people how to relieve pain in the head, neck and jaw. When the pandemic began, she found a new group of people experiencing head and neck discomfort: mask-wearers. Now, she offers classes online, and offers help to anyone who finds their face coverings aggravating their head and neck pain.

“Masks are the new normal, but how you wear them can increase that jaw tension, TMJ disorders or headaches. So, you do want to wear a mask, you just want to wear it smarter.”

“If you’ve got a mask that falls down or slides, and you start to do this – I call it the ‘skooch’ – to skooch the mask back up over your nose because your hands are busy doing another project, that’s the equivalent of grinding the teeth.”

“Mouths are now covered up with masks, so we’re less likely to take small sips of water throughout the day. When our bodies are dehydrated, that alone can trigger a headache for some of us, and that can make the muscles and nerves more irritable.”

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.