Botox Injections for Migraines

A single migraine headache can cause life-altering pain. Chronic migraines and other debilitating headaches stop you in your tracks, impacting your quality of life and leaving you with one goal: to get rid of the pain. Dr. Amr Hosny of the Advanced Headache Center, with offices in New York City and Bergen County, New Jersey, is an expert pain management specialist who focuses on headache treatments. One of the tools in his arsenal is Botox for migraines, an FDA-approved treatment for severe headaches. Call Dr. Hosny today for an appointment to see if Botox for migraines is right for you.

What Are Botox Injections for Migraines?

Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA) is an injectable that may be used — in tiny doses administered by a trained, licensed headache specialist — to treat migraines and some other headaches. Botox for migraines is a safe treatment, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2010 to treat recurrent headaches.

Botox is commonly recommended to ease the pain from chronic migraines temporarily. These headaches occur 15 times or more each month — and for at least eight of those days, the attacks last for four or more hours. These are serious, life-changing headaches.

If you suffer from debilitating migraine attacks, talk to Dr. Amr Hosny, a leading headache specialist at the Advanced Headache Center in Manhattan or Bergen County, New Jersey. This Harvard-trained interventional spine specialist uses the latest medical technology, including Botox for migraines, to help you get back to your normal lifestyle, pain-free.

How Do Botox Injections Work for Migraines?

You may think of Botox as a cosmetic treatment to eliminate facial wrinkles, but it’s proven to have other medical uses. As a migraine treatment, it acts as a pain blocker in specific nerves, which prevents the development of pain through the usual migraine stages. You likely need several sessions over the course of a month for maximum effect.

Dr. Hosny, a board-certified headache specialist, uses Botox injections to treat and manage the incapacitating neurological illness. Botox is a neurotoxin produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum, which is the same bacteria that causes botulism. However, in its purified form, tiny doses administered to specific nerves and muscles temporarily reduce muscle contractions for approximately three months. The treatment works through a series of steps:

• Your physician injects small amounts of Botox with an ultra-thin needle to specific muscle areas where the headache pain affects you. The most commonly targeted injection sites are your forehead, neck, and temples, as well as the back of your head, above your shoulder blades, and the bridge of your nose.
• The Botox penetrates the nerve endings around the injected area.
• The compound blocks the release of chemicals involved in pain transmission.
• With the process involved in pain activation blocked, your brain never receives the pain signals through the normal neurological networks.
• Since the effect is temporary, you need to repeat the Botox injections around your head and neck once every 12 weeks or so for the best migraine treatment.

Botox is recommended only if you have a history of migraine headaches or if you suffer from migraines with other headaches, such as tension headaches, on most days of a month. This is not a treatment for a simple headache. If you already have a migraine diagnosis or you feel that your headaches have affected the quality of your life, it’s time to visit a headache specialist in one of the eight Advanced Headache Center locations across northern New Jersey and New York City.

What Can I Expect from a Botox for Migraine Treatment?

You may have a lot of questions regarding this migraine treatment. When you visit Dr. Hosny for Botox injections for a migraine headache, he explains what to expect before, during, and after the treatment. Some important points to consider include:

• The doctor takes an extensive medical and family history review during your appointment.
• Be prepared to describe your symptoms, although you may have to undergo some tests to help Dr. Hosny determine which type of headache you’re suffering from. Not all headaches can be treated with Botox injections.
• Once you have an accurate diagnosis, your doctor prepares a personalized treatment plan to deliver pain relief.
• If you can benefit from Botox treatments, the doctor reviews the process and the long-term benefits of the procedure.
• Hosny determines where to make the injections based on your specific case. The procedure is quick and performed right in his office. You’re offered numbing anesthetic, although you may not even need it.
• Botox can prevent the onset of a migraine attack and cut down the total number of headache days.
• After treatment, you’ll notice a decrease in your chronic migraine symptoms that normally occur during your past migraine episodes.
• You can expect a better quality of life when headaches don’t bring your life to a halt every month.

More than four million people suffer chronic migraines. This illness comes with disruptive symptoms, such as throbbing pain, nausea, fatigue, vomiting, and dizziness. Because of these incapacitating headaches, your life grinds to a halt for many days of the month. For this reason, migraines require an early diagnosis. Botox for migraines can help you return to a normal life.

The headache specialists at Advanced Headache Center, led by Dr. Hosny, have the latest medical technology for a correct diagnosis. He uses Botox injections in his multimodal treatment approach. Contact the migraine center nearest you in Midtown Manhattan — or any of the five locations around Paramus, NJ — for effective migraine treatment.