Oklahoma Pain Treatment Centers: Treating Chronic Headaches

Do you suffer from headaches daily? Tension headaches, migraines, and headaches that happen on one side only are common. If you get them for longer than four hours at a time, at least half of the month, or on-and-off for more than three months, then you might be suffering from chronic headaches. The constant and relentless pain that comes with chronic headaches can be overwhelming, especially when normal, over-the-counter options fail to offer much relief. If nothing else has worked, it’s possible that your occipital nerves may be the cause of the pain. For this kind of pain, our Oklahoma Pain Treatment Centers physicians offer occipital nerve blocks.

Occipital nerve blocks are a mix of a steroid and a local anesthetic, which is injected to reduce swelling and inflammation of the tissue around the occipital nerves. This helps relieve pain in the area around the greater and lesser occipital nerves, which are located on the back of the head just above the neck area.

It’s important to note that not all Oklahoma Pain Treatment Centers patients will feel lasting relief from having an occipital nerve block. It’s difficult to predict whether or not the injection will help you or not but, generally speaking, patients who have experienced pain more recently will find more relief than those who have had the pain longer.

Usually, Dr. Christensen uses the first injection as both a test and a treatment. The first injection will confirm if the occipital nerves are the cause or simply involved in the pain. Otherwise, it will not help and the occipital nerves can be ruled out as part of the pain.

With these odds, you may be wondering whether you should even bother with the treatment. In truth, it’s really a matter of living with pain or trying something that might work. Think of how happy you’d feel to finally shake that constant, unbearable pain and get back to living life headache free! As Wayne Gretzky said, “you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

If you suffer from painful, chronic, and daily headaches, give an occipital nerve block a chance. Our Oklahoma Pain Treatment Centers physicians are available to answer any questions and provide service upon appointment. Just call us at 405-751-0011 and schedule your appointment.