If you have been considering getting a dog, add pain management to your list of reasons. According to a study in the journal of Pain Medicine, a therapy dog is a new addition to the pain management team.  According to Dr. Marcus who writes the well know migraine.com blog, “Therapy dogs have been trained to be quiet, calm, and soothing. Therapy dogs undergo extensive training and testing before they can be certified for therapy work. Typical therapy dogs' work involves the dog standing by or sitting with a patient and getting petted. It may not sound like this is much therapy, but studies have proven spending time with a therapy dog produces measureable reductions in stress levels and the body’s stress chemicals.”

There has been a lot of talk about “migraine triggers,” including diet, exercise and sleeping habits.  The most controversial is the idea of food triggers. “Although many people believe that some foods may trigger a migraine, the evidence remains a bit fuzzy,” says Elizabeth Loder, MD, MPH, the chief of the Division of Headache and Pain at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Loder points out that it is difficult to track food triggers because different foods may affect people in different ways. There’s also no consensus about how long it might take a dietary culprit to set off a headache so it’s difficult to pin down which foods are the real trouble makers.

Dr. Allan M. Miller opened his family dental practice in Briarcliff Manor, NY after graduating from NYU in 1977. His practice's focus is to provide patients with superior care with an emphasis on cosmetic dentistry, implant restoration, and headache treatment. Dr. Miller is a longtime Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry (FAGD), an organization dedicated to better patient care through continuing dental education. Below, he shares his experiences with the NTI-tss Plus, the most effective FDA approved, drug-free migraine preventative.

After years of prescribing full-arch traditional night guards for patients with TMJ pain, worn teeth, headaches, and migraines, I began seeking another treatment option. Too many patients wouldn't wear the large night guards and others complained that it made their headaches and TMJ pain worse. I found that when patients clench and grind their teeth while wearing full night guards, they were able to do so with greater intensity, oftentimes leading to increased pain.