Daith Piercings For Migraines

Written By Dan Hunter on November 8, 2019
Last Updated: November 26, 2020

Most body piercings are desired for the aesthetic value they will add. They help you to create a unique style that represents you and your personality. Simply put, they look cool. Daith piercings, however, are different in that many people also get them for migraine relief.

So if you’re selecting a piercing to help you with pain management, to reduce the occurrence or severity of migraines, then you should check out this guide to the most recent information available on daith piercings for migraines.

What Is A Daith Piercing?

A daith piercing is placed at the innermost part of the helix. It’s the small part of the helix, just above the tragus. The tragus is the little flap towards the front of your ear. The part of the helix that is pierced for daith piercings is a bit further in from where your ear connects to your head, towards the conch part of the ear.

Daith piercings are a type of ear cartilage piercing. A daith piercing is also a potential remedy for migraines. However, if you like the look of this piercing, you can get it whether you experience migraines or not.

How Does A Daith Piercing Help Stop Migraines?

The thing to understand about whether daith piercings can prevent or reduce migraines/headaches, or even anxiety, is that everyone’s anatomy is different, and piercers are not necessarily trained in medical anatomy.

Some people do report that their migraines have been stopped after getting a daith piercing, but if your migraines don’t stop after a piercing, it may not mean that daith piercings for migraines don’t work. It could just mean that you weren’t pierced in the exact location that alleviates migraine pain.

That’s why it’s a good idea to do a bit of research before getting daith piercings for migraines, in particular. You should know that even if daith piercing works for you as a migraine treatment, it does not cure migraines. But it may reduce their occurrence or make them less severe.

So is there any science behind daith piercings for migraines, something that would give a good indication they actually work to stop the pain of an attack? Yes, there is.

Those who suggest a daith piercing for migraine treatment point to acupuncture, which is a well-known alternative health treatment for pain management and other ailments. The location of the daith piercing is near an acupuncture point that helps with migraines.

The Argument For Acupuncture

Acupuncture is considered an alternative health treatment in the west. It’s based on traditional Chinese medicine. Acupuncture has become widely accepted by many modern medical practitioners.

It doesn’t work in the same way as conventional treatments, but centuries of anatomical study have made acupuncture results fairly accurate at treating a range of ailments.

In traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture has been used to treat headaches like migraines for thousands of years. And the advantage of acupuncture and daith piercings over conventional migraine treatments, which are systemic drugs, is that acupuncture has an extremely low risk of side effects.

The idea is that getting a daith piercing and wearing an earring in it, will continuously compress a pressure point in the ear that is related to migraines.

As with acupuncture itself, different people will get different results. If you like the appearance of daith piercing and suffer from migraines, it doesn’t hurt to try it out as a treatment.

Polls of individuals who have received daith piercings for migraines and headaches indicate that a little less than half of those surveyed experienced some relief for migraines from their daith piercings. The only risks involved when trying daith piercings for migraines, are the same risks that come with any cartilage piercing.

Is There a Daith Piercing Placebo Effect?

Of course, it’s possible that for some people who get the daith piercing, pain relief may be the result of a placebo effect. A placebo effect just means that when you think a treatment works, it does work.

Sometimes a placebo effect has positive results because it reduces your tension… and yes, reduced tension can help you to decrease the occurrence of migraines.

That being said, a placebo alone is not going to take away migraines. They have multiple causes, and muscle tension caused by stress, is only one catalyst for migraines. The other causes would still remain, though your symptoms could be reduced.

Some people who have gotten the daith piercing report that their pain relief was only temporary. In those cases, it’s possible that they were experiencing the type of effect, in which pain received in another area, reduces a previous pain. For example, the temporary pain of a healing daith piercing may take away migraine pain for a few weeks.

Does Is Matter Which Side The Daith Piercing Is On?

It may or may not matter which side you get your daith piercing on. Acupuncture works with the nervous system and circulatory system to get its results. Those results can occur by piercing either ear.

That being said, most migraines occur on only one side of the head. And many migraine sufferers find that it’s usually the same side during each migraine attack. So some professionals suggest getting the daith piercing on the side where you most often experience migraine pain.

Another way to determine which side to get a daith piercing on, is to try acupuncture or acupressure massage first. If massaging one ear, or getting acupuncture on one side provides more relief, or seems to be working better, then that would be a good side to try the daith piercing on.

Some individuals report having better results by piercing both ears on the daith, which is also an option.

Are There Any Risks To Getting A Daith Piercing?

Pretty much anything carries some risk. However, risks associated with daith piercings are fairly minor, and they tend to be less serious than side effects associated with drugs for treating migraines. Daith piercings can be a good alternative treatment for those who prefer not to take medication.

The risks are the same as for any other cartilage piercing. Potential risks of getting a daith piercing include the following.

Infection

The most serious risk associated with a daith piercing is infection. If your daith gets infected, you may experience pain, redness, and heat at the site of the piercing.

You may also get a bump or see pus draining from the piercing. Pus may have a green or yellowish color and is different from the normal clear drainage that indicates a healthy healing process.

If the piercing gets infected, it’s important to treat it right away with warm salt water soaks. This will prevent the spread of infection to the surrounding cartilage. When that happens, you risk serious deformity of the ear and will need strong antibiotics to resolve the infection.

To prevent the risk of infection, and to ensure your daith piercing heals as quickly and effectively as possible, there are also many various piercing healing sprays on the market, which help to make the aftercare process much more simple.

The best aftercare product I’ve personally used is the After Inked Piercing Aftercare Spray. Not only is it vegan, but it’s also completely alcohol and additive-free. The solution works well on all skin types including sensitive skin, and it comes in a generously-sized mist-spraying bottle for easy application. When using it from the very start of the healing process, the spray helps to decrease healing times and aims to eliminate any lingering pain or soreness.

6 Important Ear Piercing Aftercare Steps You Must Ensure You Take:

Scarring

Scarring isn’t typically an issue with most piercings. However, cartilage piercings, like the daith piercing, are more prone to developing scars. And there are two different types of scarring to be aware of. One is called hypertrophic scarring.

Often, if you form a hypertrophic scar on the site of a cartilage piercing, you will get a bump that forms around the piercing. The good news is that hypertrophic scarring usually shows up soon after the initial piercing, and it’s temporary.

With proper aftercare, hypertrophic scarring will fade as your daith piercing heals.

The other type of scar common with cartilage piercings is called a keloid scar. Although keloids also form a bump around the piercing, they are usually not temporary.

Keloids are the result of excess collagen being generated in the surrounding cartilage. The only thing you can do to prevent the formation of a keloid scar on your daith piercing is to follow good aftercare, as recommended by your piercer. Some people are simply prone to forming keloids.

Pain

So, of course a bit of pain is associated with body piercing. The good news is it’s much less intense and shorter-lived than migraine pain.

If you’re already experiencing severe pain from frequent migraines, then the brief pain of a piercing needle is not going to be a big deal in comparison. Typical piercing needles are extremely thin and sharp, and that means the actual pain of the piercing is minor.

You may also experience pain during the daith healing process. Again, this pain is typically less than the pain associated with migraines. Your piercing shouldn’t remain painful for more than a few days if you take care of it and avoid getting an infection.

Sleeping on, tugging at, or bumping your daith piercing will exacerbate pain and increase the time needed to heal.

Lack of results

The least severe risk you may experience when you get a daith piercing is that it simply may not be effective at treating your migraines. It’s understandably frustrating if you get the daith in part to reduce your migraines and it doesn’t work.

Unfortunately, there’s really no way to know if a daith piercing will help with your migraines. That’s why you should only get the piercing done if you would be happy with the look and feel of a daith piercing, regardless of whether you get results in treating your migraines.

How Much Does A Daith Piercing Cost?

Daith piercings cost a bit more than some other cartilage piercings, simply because they require experience and knowledge on the part of the piercer. And you certainly don’t want to get pierced by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, especially if you’re looking for help with migraines.

In general, a daith piercing at a professional body piercing studio costs between $50 to $60. But you’ll pay more for studios and piercers, who are in demand.

You should never do your own piercings or let an inexperienced friend do piercings for you. That goes for any piercing, but it’s even more important with daith piercings for migraines, because getting the location right is key to potentially relieving your migraine pain.

Should You Try To Get A Daith Piercing To Help Stop Migraines?

The bottom line is that we still don’t know precisely how, why, or if daith piercings work for migraines. But the risks are relatively minimal. If worst comes to worst, you can always remove the earring.

The exception is that you shouldn’t remove the jewelry from a piercing with an active infection because the earring helps the wound to drain, and prevents the infection from spreading deeper into the cartilage.

Many people have experienced some migraine relief from daith piercings. I suggest going ahead and trying daith piercings for migraines if you meet these criteria:

You are in otherwise good health
You like the way the daith piercing looks
You would be happy keeping the daith piercing for the long term
You are prepared to care for the piercing while it’s healing in order to prevent any complications
You have the money to get your piercing done in a reputable body piercing studio
You know of a reputable piercing studio with good references

Summary

Daith piercings for migraines have grown in popularity. More people are being drawn to the daith for its potential to reduce migraine severity and frequency.

According to anecdotal research, some people have experienced relief from migraine pain after getting a daith piercing, but it’s unclear whether the relief is the result of a placebo effect or a more real medical effect from the compression of a pressure point in the ear, as with acupuncture treatments.

If you’re thinking about getting a daith piercing, the risks are the same as any other cartilage piercing, which is to say it’s generally safe. You just need to follow good hygiene practices to keep the piercing healthy and pain-free.

It’s a highly visible piercing that you can wear with high amounts of variety each and every day if you choose.

If you’re in for having a beautiful piece of ear jewelry for the long run and enjoy the way it looks, then go ahead and try getting a daith piercing for your migraines. If it doesn’t help your symptoms, at least you’ll still end up getting something awesome regardless.