It’s not uncommon to occasionally experience pain in your eyebrow. For instance, bumping your head against a cabinet door might cause an injury in that area. Minor skin irritation can also make your eyebrow throb slightly. Some individuals may develop pimples or infections near the eyebrow, leading to discomfort. These injuries and infections often come with a small lump under the skin or other signs of tissue inflammation.
However, if you experience recurrent eyebrow pain without any signs of infection, the issue might be beneath the eyebrow. The frontalis muscles are located above your eyebrow and are responsible for raising it, as noted by StatPearls. The corrugator muscle and several other muscles help lower your eyebrows. These muscles are connected to the scalp and neck muscles, so an issue affecting one muscle might cause your eyebrow to pulse, similar to a tension headache. Your sinuses are located just above the brow, so an infection can result in pain. Additionally, eye problems, nerve pain, and inflamed arteries can affect the brow area.
Here are some conditions that might impact the underlying structures of the eyebrows and how they can cause your eyebrow to throb.
Eyebrow pain comes from tension headaches
After a stressful week at work, you might notice your eyebrows are very sore by the end of the day. You might also feel a band of tightness around your head that you can’t seem to alleviate. This dull throbbing in your eyebrows is typically caused by a tension headache.
Tension headaches are not as debilitating as migraines, but they can be irritating and difficult to pinpoint, according to MedlinePlus. These headaches are linked to tension in your head and scalp muscles from injury, emotions, and stress. Symptoms include a feeling of tightness on the scalp and face, tenderness in the shoulders, neck, and face, and a dull overall pain, according to the Mayo Clinic. You may also experience episodic headaches, which occur sporadically, or chronic headaches, which happen often (15 days or more a month for three months). Unlike migraines, tension headaches don’t cause visual disturbances or vomiting.
Consider trying a yoga facial massage to help relieve the tension in the facial muscles for headache relief. While keeping your forehead in place with your left hand, use your right knuckle and fingertips to massage the right side of your forehead (via PopSugar). Tap between your brows and use face tape to keep the muscles relaxed.
Sinus infection brings on brow pain
The cold you’ve been dealing with for the past week or two has turned into something more severe, causing inflammation and blockage in the nasal cavity. As the bacteria grows, it develops into a full-blown sinus infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition to throbbing pain in the brow area, you might also experience a stuffy nose, facial pressure, headache, sore throat, and possibly even bad breath.
A sinus infection can be diagnosed after a healthcare professional examines your symptoms, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology (ACAAI). A culture, CT, or biopsy might be ordered for those suffering from chronic sinus infections. This type of sinus infection might be due to a fungus, which can be dangerous if it reaches the bones.
Treatment involves eliminating the bacteria causing the infection with a course of antibiotics. Decongestants and over-the-counter medications can help alleviate the pain and pressure in the sinus cavity. The ACAAI also suggests that antihistamines, topical nasal corticosteroids, and saline washes can be beneficial. In severe cases, surgery might be necessary to fix defects in the nasal cavity.
Brow pain comes with shingles
You’re likely familiar with the chickenpox virus. As a child, you might have experienced the virus, which causes a widespread itchy rash. Even with a vaccine, mild cases of chickenpox can occur. Once the virus enters your body, it remains there (per the CDC). Years later, the virus can reactivate, causing a painful condition known as shingles. This condition typically affects individuals over the age of 50.
According to NHS Inform, shingles is an infection of the nerve and skin. It can result in a headache near the eyebrow. More commonly, it causes a painful rash similar to chickenpox. This rash develops around the affected nerve, and new blisters can appear for up to a week. Since shingles affect the nerve, pain is felt around the sores, which can be stabbing at times. People with this condition may also feel sick and experience itchiness.
When shingles are suspected, antiviral medications can aid in easier healing. Due to severe pain, the Mayo Clinic states that pain medication and patches might be prescribed to help numb the area. You can also get a vaccine to help prevent shingles if you’re at a higher risk of developing them.
Sufferers of glaucoma experience eyebrow pain
Glaucoma might initially make you think of losing visual acuity, but this chronic, progressive disease also comes with pain and pressure. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, glaucoma is often called the silent blinder because its early stages have no noticeable symptoms. This disease causes an abnormality in the eye’s drainage system, preventing fluid from filtering out properly, which leads to pressure on the optic nerve and damage.
Symptoms of glaucoma develop slowly, as noted by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. With open-angle glaucoma, small blind spots appear in the peripheral vision. Without regular eye exams, this progression might be missed until it advances. Angle-closure glaucoma comes with attacks of symptoms like pain in the forehead, redness in the eye, blurred vision, rainbows, or halos. This is due to the iris blocking the drainage closure. Tension glaucoma involves regular pressure readings but also blind spots and optic nerve damage.
Risk factors for glaucoma increase susceptibility to the disease. These include a family history, being over 40, being nearsighted or farsighted, having diabetes or migraines, and high blood pressure. Treatment involves medications to lower eye pressure, laser treatment to drain fluid, and surgery to open the drainage hole, as per the National Eye Institute.
Temporal arteritis causes eyebrow pain
Your facial muscles are supplied with blood by different vessels. When there’s an issue with this blood supply, pain is often the result.
Eyebrow pain can be a symptom of giant cell arteritis, which is inflammation of the blood vessels in the neck, face, and upper body. It’s also referred to as temporal arteritis, according to Penn Medicine. The narrowing of the temple arteries causes headaches, jaw pain, vision problems, muscle aches, and tenderness near the eyebrows and temple. As noted by the Cleveland Clinic, fever and fatigue can also accompany this condition.
The cause of this disease is challenging to determine, but it might be due to an autoimmune response by the body. Additionally, it’s known to occur in individuals diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica, an inflammatory disorder that leads to muscle stiffness (via the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases).
This condition cannot be cured, so managing the symptoms is essential for improving quality of life. Therefore, steroids might be used to help with the inflammation. Other medications are also available. The Cleveland Clinic advises minimizing smoking and drinking. Adding exercise to your daily routine and taking vitamins can also help limit the effects of the condition.
