If you have ever had a real migraine, you know that this is not simply a
“bad headache.”
A migraine can mean pounding or throbbing pain, nausea, sensitivity to
light and sound, visual disturbances, and sometimes hours or even days of being
completely knocked out of your normal routine.
And because migraines are so common, there is no shortage of advice about
how to stop them.
Drink more water.
Take magnesium.
Avoid certain foods.
Put ice on your head.
Try essential oils.
Meditate.
I’ve actually been using and teaching a treatment to stop a migraine for
decades, and that’s by using a Japanese pressure technique called Shiatsu. Now
it doesn’t prevent a migraine from happening (although I’ve had people report
back from doing the treatment a number of times, their migraine frequency dropped
dramatically).
You can check out my eBook Managing Your Stress in Difficult Times: Succeeding
in Times of Change on my website at www.Teplitz.com
under Products for that treatment and a number of other treatments using Shiatsu.
Recently, I came across another interesting approach to get rid of
migraines, and that is to brush your teeth with salt water.
Now that one got my attention!
Could something as simple as salt water and a toothbrush really have an
effect on a migraine?
So...I decided to take a closer look at what the research actually says
since I started seeing claims that brushing your teeth with salt water can help
migraines.
At first glance, that did sound pretty strange even to me.
What could your teeth possibly have to do with a neurological disorder?
Well...there actually is a connection between oral health and
migraine that researchers are investigating.
Several studies have even found an association between periodontal
disease and migraines.
For example, a large community-based study involving more than 66,000
people found that periodontal disease was more common among people with
migraine. After adjusting for other factors, the association remained
statistically significant.
A 2023 systematic review examined eight studies and found that seven
reported an association between periodontal disease and chronic migraine. The
authors did say that larger, long-term studies and intervention trials were
still needed.
A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis again found a statistically
significant association between periodontitis and migraine.
So there really is something here worth investigating as to how our mouth
affects migraines.
What the researchers were studying
The researchers wanted to find out whether stopping toothpaste use could
affect migraine frequency and severity. Their theory was that certain
toothpaste ingredients, including fluorides, benzoates, nitrates, glycerol, and
essential oils such as eucalyptus and camphor, might trigger headaches in
susceptible people.
They enrolled 106 adults, ages 18–59, who suffered from migraines. They
had people in the study who experienced both aura and non-aura migraines. They were
also not taking preventive migraine medications.
The participants were randomly divided into two groups:
- 53 people stopped using
toothpaste and brushed their teeth with 0.9% normal saline instead.
- 53 people continued using their
regular toothpaste.
The intervention lasted four weeks. The investigators did not know who
was in which group when they assessed the outcomes.
What they found
At the beginning of the study, both groups were experiencing a median of three
headache days per week, and both reported a median headache severity of 8 out
of 10. These folks were real migraine sufferers!
After four weeks, the results were striking:
|
Outcome |
Saline instead of toothpaste |
Continued toothpaste |
|
Headache days/week |
1 |
2.5 |
|
Headache severity |
1/10 |
7/10 |
|
Completely headache-free |
32.6% |
14.9% |
|
≥50% reduction in headache days |
58.1% |
32.5% |
The reduction in weekly headache days was statistically significant and
so was the difference in headache severity. The differences in complete
headache freedom and achieving at least a 50% reduction in headache frequency
were also statistically significant.
So, to salt or not to salt, that is the question!
Since this was a small study and it was looking at toothpaste’s effects,
the saltwater outcome was a bonus discovery.
Now the study used 9% saline solution, so they don’t know if that was a
factor, or if it would work with a stronger or weaker salt solution.
So, what to do? If you’re a migraine sufferer, should you wait for more
complete research to be done, or act now? While that’s a decision you’ll have
to make, here’s my take on it.
It took 3 weeks for the benefits from stopping toothpaste to start to kick
in, and after 4 weeks the differences were dramatic. Since migraines are so
debilitating, if I were a migraine sufferer, I personally would give saltwater
a shot. The idea of 32.6% being totally migraine-free versus only 14.9% in the
toothpaste groups is a BIG DIFFERENCE.
Again, if you’re a migraine sufferer, it’s a decision you’ll have to
make! And if it works, then the old statement from Star Trek deserves to be
modified to: May You Live Long and Not Suffer!