Trigeminal neuralgia

Alternative Names

Trigeminal neuralgia, Tic douloureux

What is Trigeminal neuralgia

Trigeminal neuralgia is a chronic pain condition. It affects the trigeminal nerve that is a carrier of sensation from your face to your brain. Even mild stimulation of the face such as from brushing your teeth or putting on makeup may trigger a jolt of excruciating pain in people with trigeminal neuralgia.

People with this condition may have short, mild attacks, but trigeminal neuralgia can progress, causing longer, more frequent bouts of searing pain. Trigeminal neuralgia is more prevalent among woman than men. It usually affects people who are older than 50.

Signs and symptoms

Common symptoms of Trigeminal neuralgia may include:

• Occasional twinges of mild pain
• Episodes of severe, shooting or jabbing pain that may feel like an electric shock
• Spontaneous attacks of pain or attacks triggered by things such as touching the face, chewing, speaking and brushing teeth
• Bouts of pain lasting from a few seconds to several seconds
• Episodes of several attacks lasting days, weeks, months or longer- some people have periods when they experience no pain
• Pain in areas supplied by the trigeminal nerve (nerve branches), including the cheek, jaw, teeth, gums, lips, or less often the eye and forehead
• Pain affecting one side of your face at a time
• Pain focused in one spot or spread in a wider pattern
• Attacks becoming more frequent and intense over time

Possible complications

In some cases, the pain in trigeminal neuralgia in quite intense, incapacitating the individual who may become afraid to eat in anticipation of pain. This pain can also be severe enough to disturb sleep.

What causes

In most cases, trigeminal neuralgia is caused by disrupted function of trigeminal nerve. But it can also be a result of aging, or it can be related to multiple sclerosis or a similar disorder that damages the myelin sheath protecting certain nerves. Less commonly, trigeminal neuralgia can be caused by a tumor compressing the trigeminal nerve. In other cases, the cause is unknown.

Prevention

Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent this condition, but scientists still work under this problem.

Treatment

The treatment of trigeminal neuralgia is aimed to alleviate pain. Your doctor may prescribe you anti-convulsant medications like Carbamazepine or skeletal muscle relaxant like Baclofen in order to reduce pain.

Sometimes, invasive therapies such as nerve blocks or nerve decompression technique are also beneficial for relieving pain.

In case trigeminal neuralgia results from some artery compression, then the expertise of the neurosurgeon may be needed to surgically decompress the nerve root. Almost all affected individuals find relief with one or the other treatment modality.