Quotes About Trigger points

It helps to know that trigger points form in specific places, where the motor nerve comes into the muscle to tell the muscle to do its job. This location is not always tender. It hurts only when a trigger point is present, and then only when pressed on. So, when practicing self-applied trigger point massage, you don't have to go by what your fingers palpate—feel for the place that hurts.

Travell and Simons link tinnitus (ringing in the ears) to trigger points in the sternocleidomastoid, masseter, and lateral pterygoid muscles. They quote studies showing that trigger point injection with procaine can completely relieve the condition. The key muscle may be the lateral pterygoid, which is very well hidden by the jawbone. Massage to the muscle is not difficult, though.

The difficulty in treating trigger points is that they typically send pain to some other site.