Nitrous oxide for headaches
Hi All,
A few weeks ago, I had to see my dentist for a crown. He used nitrous oxide during the procedure. In addition to easing the pain from the procedure, it also helped the migraine a great deal. In fact, the relief lasted for several days. I was surprised that the nitrous worked well. Has anyone else experienced this? I may talk to the dentist and to my neurologist about this. If it works, it might be a new weapon in the migraine arsenal. Has anyone else experienced this?
Pain free days
sconesail
Sconesail,
I was really intrigued by your question. I know that oxygen can be helpful for Migraines, especially those who have cluster headaches. So I scoured the internet and found this article from an NIH study performed in 1999. It found that those who used nitrous oxide and oxygen used less abortives to stop the headache than those who just used oxygen alone. It was a small study, but very interesting!http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10337883
-Katie
Migraine.com ModeratorHi,
Thanks so much for the article. I forwarded it to my father, who is a retired physician, as is my mother.
The interesting thing about the Nitrous was the fact that the relief lasted almost as long and an IV of Depakan. If I have a bad migraine, I get and IV of Depakan, benedryl, Phenergan, toradol and fluid at the infusion center here. Relief lasts about 8-10 days. Rekief from Nitrous lasted 7 days.
Anyway, my dad has sent the article to a good friend who is a dentist and also has severe migraine. Maybe he can help recommend something or my local dentist probably can.
Thanks,
sconesail
