Headache is a very common health problem in today's scenario among each age group with an increasing trend in young adults which negatively affects the quality of life of the affected person by causing impairment in routine activities.1 Recurrent headache is a risk factor for future chronic headache and other pain syndromes.2 Migraine is the main reason of headache worldwide.3 A meta analysis of studies on prevalence of migraine has demonstrated global prevalence among adults of 10%.4 Recent epidemiological surveys have demonstrated a significant number of Asian population, though less as compared to western countries, being afflicted with migraine, due to racial or geographical variations.5
Migraine has been ranked one of the most debilitating diseases with a disability score of 0.7 by World Health Organisation (WHO).6 Rising issue of increasing headache has been witnessed in medical students by many studies.Hence our study is to explore epidemiology of headache in dental students in a tertiary care teaching dental hospital in Northern India by determining prevalence, pattern and therapeutic options seeking behaviour of students so that adequate steps to be taken to prevent as well as adequately treat this ailment in efficient population group of our society.In current scenario of increasing prevalence of headache, most of the students have been found to practice self medication leading to inappropriate management and sometimes analgesic overuse causing treatment refractoriness.6
Various studies have been done worldwide on general population, children, adolescents and selectively medical students to assess the prevalence and pattern of headache.Recurrent headache was found to have direct impact on academic performance of students in health profession raising an alarm for their awareness and encouragement for adequate management.Some Indian studies also determined the headache prevalence in general population and the adolescents but studies including students in health profession are lacking.