A simple blood test will find out if its trigeminal neuralgia, I know because I had my doctor check me for it which came up negtive. But I think we got the same systoms because sence 06 of 2002 I get a mild pain on the right side of the head along with electriclike shooting pain and chills that run through my body. Had cat scans done on my head and other blood test so far negtive. Im still trying to get them to send me to a neurologist plus to get a mri done. Trigeminal neuralgia is not dangerous from what my doctor told me. If you want you can e- mail me or let me know how it turns out.

I am wondering my friends if this is trigeminal neuralgia also. My symptoms happen when I am asleep, I am awoken by this terrible intense throbbing in my jawbone, I cannot open my mouth, close my mouth, if I lift my head up, the pain intensifies in my jaw, I have checked with the dentist no problem, and have had x-rays. Negative. My jaw actually feels as though it will explode with pressure. I am on the floor crying like a baby for mabe 25 minutes until it goes away. These symptoms happen every couple of months mabe 2 or three. But sometimes I will get it 2 times in one month. The soreness goes away about 3 hours after the initial pain. It feels as though some one has punched me in the jaw, and I once had a light red mark there. I am scared that this pain will come back, some times I wonder when it will, I am positive it will come back, thats the scary part. In all my life my friends I have never had pain such as this. And I have had children . I would consider it a priviledge to keep in contact with you both to know how you are doing and mabe we can compare notes, I truly do not know what triggers it. God bless

You dont say if you ever had extenstive dental work, alot of what I have researched on both these issues have started from dental trauma like root canals extractions and so on. I had a bridge, crown work and several root canals last year, this year again I had new root canals started on the crowned teeth that were never bothering me before, and then the bridge ached all the time, the root canals failed had the bridge and teeth extractioned and am left with aching pain in my jaw bones and inflamed gums, this is horrible pain all the time, some time it let up. I have been on antibotcis, nothing helps, they are now looking at atypical face pain, since tn is sharp lightening bolt pain, it sounds like to me you have a similar pain, however ibuprophen helps mine which is very unusual to nerve pain to respond too. So no one has concluded what this is other than dental trauma, its been two months ow and no let up. I am going to my regualr gp he wants to put me on neurontin, I am not an advocate for drugs at all my body always give me problems on them, so I am going to try to find someone in the homeapathic field to help me/ I would love to know if this could be a bone infection since thats what this feels like. Good luck to you hope you get better too

I recently took an x-ray of my sinuses, guess what it is guys, I have a cyst in my maxillary bone, also with cronic sinusitis, it is the last thing I everr thought of. I hope all of you check for that possibility too. Im going to see my ent in three weeks. God bless you all.

What will they do for a cyst there? Is it dissovleable? Did your teeth also hurt with this problem? Thanks god they found it...God luck and keep in touch

Well I was diagnosed with neuralgia; be careful what medication is given, u can suffer an alergic reaction to them. I would like to refer a neurologist Dr. Jeffery cohen, he is a 170 east end ave in new york city; he is affiliated with beth isreal hospital. The pain can be bad, but I was told not life threatening currently I am on, neurontin 300mg. It works, but be patient, results take about 2-3 weeks!! My pain went into remission for about 1 year then came back I have had the pain now every day, for about 3 months I am hoping the pain will go again with the treatment of neurontin now being used again..

I can tell ya from my own personal experience, tn pain is nothing to sneeze at!! My first experience with it was over 12 years ago, when I was 28 years old. It hit like an ocean of lightning bolts rolling over the shore of the right side of my face, over and over and over again, with no end in sight. The pain was beyond excruciating, sharp jolts that waxed and waned like waves. I went through dental procedures, including root canals and an extraction, then treatment for tmj. The mouthpiece that was made for me to wear at night was the worst thing ever!!!!!!!

I was working at a long-term-care facility at the time, and one day, while doing rounds with one of the doctors, one of those 'attacks' hit me.
He asked me to describe it to him, and when I did he said, "if it is what I think it is, then god help you" (yes, quote!) it was, and I ran the gamut of all the medications that were being used at the time, all to no avail. The doses that relieved pain were toxic to me, I had horrendous side effects, or the relief was very short lived. Next step: partial neurectomy. I've had 65% of the first branch removed, 75% of the second branch, and 85% of the third branch removed (on the right side).
While there was pain relief, I was left with a perpetual numb right side of my face, as though I just left the office of a dentist who got a little needle-happy with the novacaine. Oh well, at least no more tn pain!!

Wrong!! Now, 10 years later, it's back with a vengence on the left side of my face. I am currently on tegretol (again) 200mg bid, and baclofen, 5mg tid, and a total zombie. Yes, even at such a low dose, it's got me zonked out big time!! Today is my first day of this dose of the tegretol, so i'm hoping that the effects will calm down over the next few days.
The Dr. Says that, if this is not effective, (which, btw, it's not; I am still having the pain) then it's back to the neurologist.

I'm wondering; have any of you had any luck with acupuncture for this!?
I am seriously considering it (as everything else short of having a hole drilled in my head seems to do no good) but i'd like a bit of info first.

If any of you have anything to share about acupuncture for tn i'd love to hear about it!!

Thank you for your time!!!

Speedie

The only danger is killing yourself from the pain being so bad you can't take it anymore. Well, that and the medication to treat it can cause other problems. The number one med for it is Tegretol, but other anti-epileptics may also work. The pain may come and go and may come more often as you get older. If it was from a trauma (injury,) then it could go away and not come back.

I developed this last July from a novocaine shot I had when getting some filling replaced. Now I take 600 mg Tegretol a day in order to be 99% pain free. I have other issues that the Tegretol also helps, but if you don't need to take it for anything but pain, then they like to try to take you off it once in a while to see if the pain is in remission. You have to have blood work done when you take Tegretol to make sure it isn't hurting your liver and other things. Also, anti-epileptics can cause seizures, especially if you quit them cold turkey. You have to work with your doctor on this.

It can take weeks to get used to the Tegretol sleepiness, etc. If you don't take it like you should, it will take longer to adjust. They usually start people on 100mg twice a day and work up until you get the relief you need. I love Tegretol for keeping my pain at bay.