Migraine Treatment in Rancho Mirage
Minimally invasive pain relief treatment
Botox® for Migraine Treatment
At Desert Pain Specialists we offer migraine treatment by using Botox® to prevent migraines from even happening. Botox® is actually the only FDA approved treatment for preventing chronic migraines. We use Botox® to essentially relax the muscles in your face that are causing your migraines. The botulinum toxin found in Botox® helps with migraines by inhibiting pain signals from entering your body’s central pain processor. Therefore, Botox® blocks the muscle’s neurotransmitter from signaling other neurons to contract, preventing another painful migraine.
Botox® injections are an effective treatment for reducing the strength and frequency of your chronic migraines. Since 2010, Botox® is the only FDA approved treatment for blocking migraines before they even occur. Botox® is designed to prevent around 8 or 9 migraine days a month, which is rather significant if you are a chronic migraine sufferer who has 15 or more migraine days.
Candidates for Migraine Botox® Injections
You can qualify for Botox® injections if you suffer from chronic migraines. In general though, the best candidates for Botox® injections to treat migraines experience the following:
- Continuous chronic migraines for 10 days or more a month
- Little to no success from other medicine and remedies for migraines
- Desire pain relief from constant migraine pain
Treatment Process for Migraines
To use Botox® for migraine relief, Dr. Lai strategically inserts Botox® injections into target areas around the head and neck. This allows the Botox® to effectively dull the pain from future migraines and reduce their frequency. Generally, this Botox® treatment for chronic migraines uses approximately 31 injections and is administered every 12 weeks for you to experience continued migraine relief. However, treatment can vary depending on your results in order to achieve optimal migraine relief. Every patient we see is different so it is important to discuss your migraine treatment goals with us so we can create the appropriate treatment plan for you.
Recovery for Migraine Treatment
There is practically no downtime after receiving Botox® injections for migraine treatment. You could immediately go about your normal day-to-day activities after receiving treatment. It is likely though that the injection sites will develop a slight swelling and redness right after treatment, however, your skin should return to normal within a few hours. The results for migraine treatment with Botox® vary from patient to patient. For many patients it only takes within two weeks for the Botox® injections to take effect and provide a reduction in migraine frequency and experience migraine relief. For others, the results may not happen as quickly and a second treatment could be done to achieve the desired migraine relief. It is important to talk to Dr. Lai about your migraine treatment goals so that he can create the optimal treatment plan for you to experience migraine relief.
Frequently Asked Questions
Normally Botox® injections are given every 12 weeks (around 3 months) for migraine relief. However, the frequency can depend on your personal needs and results so Dr. Lai can create a more personalized plan for optimal results.
It varies from person to person when it comes to how long Botox® takes to provide migraine relief. For most patients, they’re able to get their desired results within only two weeks following treatment. For others it may take another round of Botox® injections to attain their desired migraine relief.
Normally it is alright to take other headache medication with Botox® to help with flare ups. However, it is important to talk to your healthcare provider and Dr. Lai if it is alright to take headache medication on top of the Botox® injections, because in rare situations side effects can happen for mixing the two. There is only a small amount of Botox® injected into targeted areas on your head and neck to provide migraine relief. Plus the active ingredient in Botox®, botulinum toxin, is often undetectable in the body, so it makes it unlikely for it to interact badly with other medications. It is, however, still important to disclose your full medical history and medication list before getting Botox® for migraine treatment to minimize any potential risks.
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