The world of headaches is a vast one. For starters, there are more than 150 different types of headaches, with tension headaches being the most common — they affect more than 70% of people.
On top of this, there are migraines, which touch the lives of more than 1 billion people around the world.
Given the enormity of the overall headache burden, it’s good news that many different treatment options are available. Here at Neuropathy & Pain Centers of Texas, our team has had great success with one treatment in particular — trigger point injections — that works well for common headaches like tension headaches and migraines. Let’s take a look.
If you’ve ever carved a piece of meat, you’ve encountered that thin, white tissue that winds through it — it’s tough tissue that’s hard to cut.
This tissue is fascia, which surrounds almost every tissue and organ in your body, creating a web of protective and connective tissue. When knots develop in this tissue, they pull on the surrounding fascia and muscle, leading to myofascial pain.
Bear in mind that these knots in your fascia can cause localized pain (the knot itself is tender) and referred pain as the tight bundle pulls on surrounding tissues. So, a knot in your calf might lead to foot pain, or a knot in your shoulder could lead to head pain.
Trigger point injections are designed to target these knots, which are also called trigger points, hence the name of the treatment. The injections release the trigger points to relieve your myofascial pain.
These injections often contain a local anesthetic and, sometimes, a steroid, to tackle both pain and inflammation in the knot. If you prefer not to involve medications, we can also use dry needling — we insert an empty needle into the trigger point to get it to release its grip on your fascia.
We mentioned that there are many different types of headaches, and trigger point therapy is a great solution for those that involve your myofascia, including tension headaches and migraines.
So, if you’re struggling with ongoing head pain due to either of these common headaches, we highly recommend that you look into trigger point injections. In releasing the tension in the connective tissues that are contributing to your head pain, we can improve your comfort.
While we have a great track record for relieving head pain through trigger point injections at our practice, there is no shortage of studies that back up our experiences. For example, one study on the use of trigger point injections for tension headaches concluded, “Trigger point therapy has reduced the duration, intensity, and frequency of headaches.”
So, if you want to add trigger point therapy to your headache treatment arsenal, please call or message one of our offices in Waco, Arlington, Wichita Falls, or Fort Worth, Texas, today to schedule an appointment with one of our headache specialists.
