I’ve dealt with headaches my whole life. Sometimes they’re just regular brain pulsing headaches, and other times they morph into sick-inducing migraines. I’ve tried all types of medication, and have even done some research into finding out of my headaches are because of an allergy or my diet. So far, nothing.
For about two years now I’ve played around with the idea of getting my daith (pronounced doth) pierced. There’s been a lot of internet hype about how getting the daith piercing can cure migraines. Kind of like permanent acupuncture. I asked around for a bit, and talked to some people I knew who had gotten their daith’s pierced as a way to help with headaches. For the most part it seemed like a mixed bag. Some said it had cured their migraines, others said it hadn’t made a single difference. When I followed this up with even more research, I found out that there actually isn’t a ton of information into the use of daith piercings as migraine relief, and that from what we understand medically, having a daith piercing doesn’t guaranteed you’ll see any change in migraines.
Yet, I had had quite a bit of first hand conversations with people who had seen a radical difference in their headache intensity and frequency after getting the daith piercing. It seemed to me that it almost acted like a placebo effect, benefiting some, and not any help to others.
So on June 15th, when my sister decided to pierce her nose, I decided, “what the heck?”, and got my right daith pierced. I figured I might as well try it. If it worked, then great! No more headaches. If it didn’t, oh well. Now I had a cute new piercing.
It hurt. Which was expected. There was a giant needle being shoved through the cartilage in my ear. But it wasn’t so much the intensity of the pain, but the location. For about two hours following the piercing, my head throbbed. But not on my ear. My actual head throbbed. My eye sockets, along my jaw, the base of my scull, all on the right side. Strangely enough, all the places where I got really bad headaches and where my migraines liked to hang out.
So now it’s been three and a half months, and how do I feel?
I can say that I’ve only had a migraine 3 times since I got my daith pierced. Which is an INSANE improvement to what was plaguing me before. But have they gone away entirely? No. And I honestly didn’t expect them to.
Personally, I would recommend getting a daith piercing to anyone who has a major problems with migraines and headaches. And don’t say “Oh it’s not really my style…” I know southern baptist grandmothers who have gotten this piercing because it’s helped them with headaches and they would never have gotten their cartilage pierced otherwise. So if you’re thinking about getting a daith piercing, here are a couple things you should know:
The sleeping process is definitely the hardest. If you sleep on your side, this will be an annoyance at the least, and a painful jolt at the most. As time goes on and the piercing heals, it gets easier and easier to sleep on that side. You learn which angles you can place your head to avoid bothering the piercing in your sleep. After three and a half months, I sleep on that side just fine without any problem.
The cleaning guidelines are easy: saline solution and a q-tip. Try not to move your earring around to much in the hole, and just clean around the edges. If your ear is itching, go clean it again. (Also I should note that I’ve never cleaned my ears so much as I have these past couple of months.)
Since daith piercings usually take 6-9 months to heal, I’m keeping in my horseshoe ring until around Christmas before changing the jewelry. Since it’s cartilage, it takes longer to heal, and since it’s in such a weird spot, it may take even longer.
That’s pretty much it. As long as you clean it well, and leave it alone, you won’t have any problems. I went to ‘Ouch! Piercing and Tattoo Studio’ here in Columbia to get mine done, and they were fast, efficient, clean, and well educated. Any future piercings I get will ABSOLUTELY be going through them.
After a year I’ll probably do another update, and continue tracking my headaches to see if the frequency lowers or stays the same. We shall see!
Hannarchy 