Many Americans suffer from headaches of all kinds. Now, one doctor says something usual as a tender area in your mouth, which could be treated with a safe and simple approach, can fix the problem.

Jill Guercio suffered from migraine headaches, “It will become something pounding, pulsating, very much in the temporal area.”

And Guercio tried all kinds of drugs for the headaches, but the medicine had side effects and didn’t solve the problem.

Then one day Guercio went to see Scarsdale dentist Dr. Mark Friedman for a different problem, “As he was examining me, he put his finger all the way in the back of my mouth and he pressed on this spot and I saw stars.”

Turns out Dr. Friedman had found a spot in the back of the mouth, between the gums and cheek, that is extremely tender and inflamed in headache sufferers, migraine and tension headaches alike, “We found that it’s local, and because of that, we can treat it locally, and we get profound and uninvasive correction of the headache or prevention of the headache.”

Treatment involves a cooling device called a IVC, Intra-Oral Vasoconstriction device, that circulates cold water through the tips for about 30 minutes to reduce the inflammation in the back of the mouth.

A new study in the Journal Headache found that it was as effective as triptans for migraines, without the side effects. Several studies have shown it eases 80 percent of severe headaches within 40 minutes, without drugs, making it safe for even pregnant women.

After a couple in-office cooling sessions, patients can graduate to an anti-inflammatory cream they apply daily to the sensitive area.

It worked for Guercio, “It is amazing and you do feel much, much better.”