The 36 million Americans who suffer from regular migraines may have a new friend in a common plastic surgery procedure that’s reported to be helpful in alleviating the powerful headaches. Surprisingly, this new treatments comes from a common cosmetic surgery procedure that’s usually only considered for beautification purposes.

It turns out that the elective surgery of a “forehead lift” may really be a good way to almost completely eliminate migraines from people who regularly suffer from them. A forehead lift consists of smoothing out the skin on the forehead to make wrinkles disappear. To do this muscles around the temple and forhead often have to be slightly shifted or moved to smooth out the forehead. During the cosmetic surgery it is thought that perhaps the muscles around the forehead that are thought to be responsible for the migraines are loosened and deactivated, which almost completely eliminates migraines completely.

A study published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery reported that 57 percent of patients who received the forehead lift surgery reported a a complete ceasation of migraine headaches one year after undergoing the procedure. And even if the headaches weren’t completely eliminated, 83% reported a partial improvement in relief from migraine headaches. The procedure studied was designed specifically for migraine relief and was slightly different from a traditional forehead lift that is performed for strictly cosmetic reasons.

For years there have been unscientific studies and anecdotes about Botox injections in the forehead behind used to prevent migraine headaches. The problem with Botox is that it’s not a permanent solutions and migraines were returning to most patients within three or four months. The few migraine sufferers who have undergone forehead lift surgery, however, largely report a lessening of migraine symptoms and recurrences. Just as with Botox, some migraine victims who happened to have a forehead lift later reported have many fewer migraine headaches after the procedure was done.

This forehead lift procedure designed for eliminating migraines is still a fairly new process and the initial study was one a relatively small group of people. It may be years before the process is perfected and widely offered if it ever is fully adopted by most plastic surgeons. The study also had a rather high placebo success rate, which indicates that the high success rate may not be completely due to the surgery alone. There are plenty of plastic surgeons in New York and New Jersey who are currently performing forehead lifts for cosmetic reasons but we’re not yet aware of any aiming to reduce migraine headaches with them.