1. Determine Whether You Have Sinusitis
Something as common as sinusitis can cause burning sensations in your head. If you've been experiencing congestion, facial discomfort, malaise, low-grade fever and inner-ear pressure, you may have a sinus infection. During a sinus headache, the pain typically hovers around the front part of your head, radiating into the face. The burning or aching sensation is caused by inflammation in the sinus passages that run behind your nose, cheeks and forehead. You may notice that your pain level is higher if you bend over quickly, and you'll probably feel especially bad in the morning after the mucus has collected in your sinuses and begins pressing against the inflamed membranes. If you believe you have sinusitis, visit your doctor. Some forms are bacterial, and a round of antibiotics may help clear up your infection.
2. Undergo Evaluation for Temporal Arteritis
Caused by inflammation and damage to the cranial blood vessels that branch from the carotid artery, temporal arteritis can cause severe, throbbing headaches and a burning scalp that is hypersensitive to the touch. Although doctors are still studying the condition, it is believed that it often occurs in people with a damaged immune response. If your body has been fighting off an infection for weeks or months, or you've been on large doses of antibiotics for bacterial conditions recently, you many begin to develop temporal arteritis. Watch for correlated symptoms like fever, excessive perspiration, vision problems, weakness and overall fatigue.
Your doctor conducts blood tests to diagnose this condition and will often discover that your liver function tests are abnormal, your hemoglobin is low and your C-reactive protein is running unusually high. Prescribed corticosteroids can reduce the existing inflammation, and over-the-counter aspirin doses may also be prescribed. The prognosis for this condition is quite good. You'll probably make a full recovery within a few weeks. There are rare cases, however, in which it takes people 1 to 2 years to bounce back and become free of pain.
3. Talk to Your Doctor About Post-Stroke Pain
After a stroke, which causes injury to your brain due to a temporary blood blockage, some people experience what has been called "post-stroke pain." While medical practitioners don't understand the exact cause of this type of discomfort, it could be because the autonomic nervous system becomes hyperactive due to brain damage that occurred with the stroke. You may be in the 20 percent of patients who cease to have post-stroke pain after several years while 30 percent improve over the course of 1 year. Unfortunately, this pain may also become a constant part of your daily life.
Regular pain killers don't help this type of nervous system pain. Instead, your physician may recommend an anticonvulsant, antidepressant or antiarrhythmic medication to reduce the burning sensation. A combination of amitriptyline and gabapentin has been successful for some post-stroke sufferers, and it has very few side effects for most people.
If you continue to struggle with severe, skull-burning pain, your medical team may consider surgery. Deep brain stimulation therapy gives about half of post-stroke pain patients some degree of relief, though it may not remove your symptoms entirely.
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