Fernando Exposto is a Postdoctoral fellow and Clinical instructor at the Section of Orofacial Pain and Jaw Function at Aarhus University, Denmark. He received his Dental Degree from ISCSEM in Portugal in 2007, an MSc in Oral Rehabilitation from the Danube University in Austria in 2011, an MSc in Headache Disorders from the University of Copenhagen in 2018 and a PhD in Health Sciences from Aarhus University in 2019. He completed a 2-year residency in Orofacial Pain at the University of Kentucky and is certified by the American Board of Orofacial Pain.

Tension-type headache (TTH) is the most common type of primary headache, and chronic TTH (CTTH) is associated with a heavy burden, both human and financial. It is generally thought that TTH episodes occur due to prolonged pain originating from pericranial muscles. However, a few studies have suggested that the pericranial tenderness (PCT) TTH patients present with may be a consequence of frequent headaches and not their cause. In addition, most studies addressing the cause of TTH have assessed patients as a group and not as individuals, and as such it is unknown how diverse the underlying mechanisms of TTH truly are. I will present some of the studies done in our section where we have assessed the underlying mechanisms of TTH using experimental models in healthy individuals and pain profiles, PCT, and psychological and sleep variables in TTH patients. At the end of the lecture atendees will understand that in healthy individuals, increased PCT does not seem to be a major trigger for TTH episodes. In addition, TTH patients without increased PCT are more prevalent than previously thought and not all CTTH patients present with signs of increased central nervous system activity or deficient pain modulation.