Belleville patients are treated here for migraine, headache driven by the neck, and the recurring “sinus headache” that is usually migraine, including with a needle-free sphenopalatine ganglion block that targets the facial and nasal symptoms directly.
From Belleville the clinic is a straightforward run north and west — I-255 to I-270 and across the river, or I-64 west and around — to Woodson Road on the Missouri side, beside Lambert Airport.
Is my sinus headache actually a migraine?
Recurrent pain across the cheeks, forehead and bridge of the nose, with a blocked nose and watering eyes, gets treated as sinus disease for years at a time. A large share of it is migraine. The nasal and eye symptoms are part of the migraine itself, driven by the same trigeminal-autonomic pathway, not evidence of infection.
The tell is what the episodes do over time: migraine recurs in discrete attacks with clear periods in between and often responds to migraine treatment, while genuine sinusitis produces continuous symptoms with discolored discharge and fever. The full comparison is in is it a sinus headache or a migraine.
Why it matters more than a label
Years of antibiotics for something that was never bacterial is the obvious cost. The less obvious one is the acute medication taken alongside, which crosses into medication-overuse headache more easily than most people expect and quietly raises the attack frequency.
How does a sphenopalatine ganglion block treat sinus-type migraine?
Where the pattern is facial and autonomic, the sphenopalatine ganglion block targets a nerve bundle behind the nose that carries exactly those symptoms. The anesthetic is delivered topically through a soft catheter in the nostril; there is no needle.
How can you tell a sinus headache from a migraine?
Facial pressure, a blocked nose, a watering eye and pain behind the cheekbones is read as sinusitis by almost everyone who has it, and by a good number of clinicians. Most of the time it is not. Migraine activates the same autonomic pathway, producing genuine congestion and tearing without any infection being present.
The tell is the course. Sinus infection builds over days with discolored discharge and often fever; migraine arrives and departs on its own schedule, recurs in a pattern, and responds to migraine treatment rather than to antibiotics. People frequently arrive having had several courses of antibiotics for a headache disorder.
Sinus headache or migraine sets out how the two are separated.
What a preventive plan actually contains
Prevention is where most of the benefit is, and it is the part that gets least attention because it is slower and less dramatic than aborting an attack. A plan worth the name has a target — a measurable reduction in headache days — a review date, and an agreement about what happens if it does not work.
It usually combines something pharmacological with the unglamorous parts: sleep timing, hydration, meal regularity, and the specific supplements with reasonable evidence behind them rather than the full shelf. Magnesium, riboflavin and vitamin D covers which of those have data and which do not.
Headache prevention is the fuller version. The point of a plan is that it is falsifiable: if the headache days have not moved in three months, that is information and the plan changes.
Can a headache come from your neck?
A large share of headaches that have resisted migraine treatment for years are coming from the upper cervical spine. The joints at the top of the neck refer pain into the head along predictable routes, and the referral pattern is stable enough to recognize.
The clue is usually mechanical: it is worse after a period in one position, it is side-locked rather than swapping sides, and neck movement changes it. Is my headache coming from my neck covers how that is established.
Where the atlanto-axial joint is implicated specifically, a targeted injection is both the diagnostic step and the treatment.
How long does a nerve block for headache last?
A fair question that rarely gets a straight answer. The anesthetic in a block wears off within hours; the useful effect frequently outlasts it by weeks, and the reason is that interrupting the pain signal lets a sensitized system settle rather than that the drug is still present.
Duration varies widely between people and between diagnoses, which is why we say what the range is rather than quote an average that will be wrong for most. How long a block lasts covers it, and side effects and risks covers the other half of that conversation.
What we do not reach for
Opioids are poor headache drugs. They work briefly, they drive medication overuse faster than almost anything else, and a year of them makes a treatable headache disorder considerably harder to treat. We are not a route to them and say so plainly rather than at the end of an appointment.
We also do not run open-ended injection series. A block is a treatment and a test at once; if two properly placed ones have not helped, that is a finding that should change the plan rather than justify a third.
Coming from the far side of the county
From southern and eastern St. Clair County the drive is closer to fifty minutes than forty, and that is worth planning around rather than discovering. Morning appointments travel considerably better than afternoon ones in that direction.
If the trip is genuinely difficult, say so when booking. It changes what we try to accomplish in one visit rather than spreading it across three.
Up the river in Madison County, headache treatment for Alton covers pain that starts at the base of the skull, and Illinois patients have their own overview page.
Common questions
I have had sinus surgery and the headaches continued. What now?
That history is itself informative — it is one of the more common routes to a migraine diagnosis being made late. See sinus headache or migraine, then get in touch.
Does the SPG block involve a needle?
No. It is delivered topically through a soft catheter in the nostril. See the SPG block explained.
Do you take Illinois insurance?
We verify benefits before treatment and will tell you what your plan covers. Note that an authorization is a confirmation that a service meets criteria for review, not a guarantee of payment — details on the contact page.
Can a migraine be mistaken for a sinus headache?
Yes, and often. Recurring pain across the cheeks, forehead and bridge of the nose, with a blocked nose and watering eyes, gets treated as sinus disease for years. A large share of it is migraine. The congestion and tearing come from the same trigeminal-autonomic pathway that drives the migraine itself, not from an infection.
What is a red flag that it really is a sinus infection?
The course over time. A true sinus infection builds over days, with continuous symptoms, discolored discharge and often a fever. Migraine arrives and leaves on its own schedule, recurs in a pattern with clear periods in between, and responds to migraine treatment rather than to antibiotics. Several courses of antibiotics for a recurring headache point toward migraine.
How do you get rid of a sinus migraine?
Treat it as the migraine it is. Where the pattern is facial and autonomic, a sphenopalatine ganglion block targets the nerve bundle behind the nose that carries those symptoms, using anesthetic delivered through a soft catheter in the nostril, with no needle. Prevention follows: a plan with a measurable target in headache days, a review date, and a change of course if it does not work.
What is a head injection used for in migraines?
A nerve block or joint injection is a treatment and a test at once. The anesthetic wears off within hours, but the useful effect often outlasts it by weeks because interrupting the pain signal lets a sensitized system settle. Where the upper neck is the source, a targeted atlanto-axial injection is both the diagnostic step and the treatment. If two properly placed blocks have not helped, the plan changes.