Migraines cause severe headaches, as well as nausea and fatigue. TMJ disorders can cause head pain, jaw pain, and discomfort when you talk and chew.
These conditions are sometimes considered hard to treat because they occur in the sensitive region of your head and jaw, but there is one treatment that can help relieve both types of pain.
Here at Integrated Pain Solutions in Stamford, Connecticut, Dr. Halina Snowball offers Botox® injections to treat both migraines and TMJ pain. Here’s what to know about this impressive treatment.
While you may think of Botox as a way to smooth out wrinkles, it actually has incredible uses as a medical injectable. Botox is a type of toxin that interrupts nerve signals in your body.
When it comes to reducing wrinkles, Botox works by relaxing your tense muscles. However, this relaxing effect makes it a great mechanism for treating disorders like migraines and TMJ disorders that involve muscular tension, pain, or neurological problems.
Migraines can include severe throbbing head pain, sensitivity to light, nausea, and fatigue. While we don’t know exactly what causes migraines, they seem to involve overactive neurotransmitters.
Botox injections are FDA-approved to treat chronic migraines, defined as having 15 or more migraines monthly, each lasting more than four hours. Botox is thought to help by disrupting the neurotransmitters involved in migraine activity.
Most migraine sufferers find their migraine frequency and intensity greatly reduced after Botox treatment. A recent study showed that after five rounds of treatment, about 70% of migraine sufferers had half the number of migraine headaches than before starting treatment.
Usually, we recommend treatments of 30-40 Botox injections every 12 weeks for a preventative effect on your migraines.
TMJ disorders are caused by a dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint. This joint connects your jaw to your skull and is used daily when breathing, talking, and eating.
The TMJ can be prone to dysfunction due to genetics, jaw clenching, or erosion from regular wear-and-tear. People with TMJ disorders often develop jaw pain, neck pain, and clicking or popping sounds in this joint.
TMJ disorders are thought to occur when dysfunction in the joint causes tension throughout the rest of the head, leading to head pain, neck pain, and other symptoms. Botox helps relax these tensed muscles, preventing TMJ pain and improving mouth mobility.
We recommend multiple Botox injections into your jaw muscles and other affected regions over the course of several months for the best results.
If you’ve been suffering from a hard-to-treat condition such as migraines, TMJ disorders, or any other pain disorder, it can be easy to feel hopeless.
No matter what type of pain you have, we’re here to help you find relief through a holistic, patient-centered approach.
To find out more about pain relief with Botox, call our office at 203-293-0549 or request an appointment online today.
