Treatment of trigeminal nerve pain or trigeminal neuralgia
Dr. Mohammad Hossein Delshad
تهران
Trigeminal nerve pain or trigeminal neuralgia
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Trigeminal neuralgia is a kind of disease that occurs in the form of chronic pain in the face.
At the beginning of this disease, you may feel mild symptoms... As trigeminal nerve disease progresses, you will feel long and frequent pain.... Statistics show that trigeminal neuralgia is more common in women than men.
What are the symptoms of trigeminal nerve pain? Pain caused by trigeminal nerve has symptoms that you will notice this disease despite these symptoms:
- There are severe pains that resemble electric shocks.
- Severe facial pain occurs when touching the face, brushing teeth, talking, eating, etc.
- Trigeminal nerve pain attacks last from a few seconds to a few minutes.
- Pain is felt in areas such as the cheek, jaw, teeth, gums, eyes and forehead where the trigeminal nerve is located.
- Pain that involves one side of the face at the same time, rarely both sides of the face may be involved.
If the pain is long-lasting and does not improve with over-the-counter pain relievers, you should see a pain specialist.
What is the cause of trigeminal nerve pain? Trigeminal nerve pain is due to the dysfunction of the trigeminal nerve... usually this problem is related to the collision of blood vessels and the trigeminal nerve in the brain... contact or trauma can put pressure on the nerve and cause its dysfunction.
The likelihood of trigeminal neuralgia usually increases with age... It may also be caused by factors such as multiple sclerosis or MS where the myelin sheath is damaged.... Sometimes, some people experience trigeminal nerve pain due to brain lesions and other abnormalities.
Other things such as injuries from surgery, stroke or facial trauma can lead to dysfunction of the trigeminal nerve in the face.
Read more: The cause of tingling in the face
Usually facial pains are felt in the patient in these conditions:
- face modification
- touching the face
- face wash
- Laughter
- Eating
- the wind that blows in front of the face
- brushing
- Makeup
- talking
- Drinking
How to diagnose the trigeminal nerve
When you go to the doctor, according to the symptoms, he diagnoses the cause of the pain.... For example, the problem of patients with this disease is diagnosed based on the following factors:
- The pain is suddenly felt like a shock and short.
- Parts of the face that have pain are identified.
- factors such as talking or eating are pain triggers.
Also, the doctor may consider different tests to diagnose this disease in order to accurately diagnose trigeminal neuralgia:
### Nerve examination
The doctor can determine the exact location of the pain by touching and examining some parts of the face.
### Perform MRI imaging
Sometimes the doctor is asked to do an MRI to look for things like MS or a tumor.
In general, accurate diagnosis and examination by the doctor is very important to consider an effective treatment for the patient.
How is trigeminal nerve pain treated?.. Drug therapy is considered as the first step for patients, some people recover at this stage and do not need special measures for treatment.
Read more: The cause of facial pain
The treatment process usually starts with medication, some people don't need more treatment.... However, some people may not be treated with the drug or experience unpleasant side effects.
In the next step, the doctor considers injection or surgical treatment options for the patient, depending on the patient's condition...
If the patient has an underlying problem such as multiple sclerosis, this condition must be treated first.
Treatment is usually considered for this condition:
- anticonvulsant drugs
- muscle relaxants
- Botox injection
If drug treatment is not effective, in the next step, the doctor considers effective less invasive solutions such as radiofrequency.... In this method, they destroy the nerves that lead to pain.
doctorpain specialist inserts a hollow needle into the face to send a mild electric current to the target nerve and lead to pain relief for patients. Sometimes the pain may recur after three to four years.
### home remedies
Many people relieve their pain by heating the painful area... for this you can put a hot water bottle or hot water compress on the painful area... you can also take a warm shower to relieve the pain.
Other things that can help relieve this condition are meditation, lifestyle changes, and physical activity.
Is there a solution for prevention
Unfortunately, this complication cannot be prevented.. but you can avoid the stimuli that cause pain and increase it... Regarding stress, we should also say that there is nothing to show that trigeminal nerve pain is caused by stress.
Trigeminal nerve massage
Massage therapy helps to improve blood circulation in the facial area and leads to trigeminal neuralgia being affected, reducing tension in muscles, ligaments and finally reducing pain in people suffering from this disease.
Massage therapy technique has been used for many people and the results show that the pain and frequency of attacks are much less after several massages.
Trigeminal nerve irritation
In this treatment method, the doctor inserts a hollow needle through the cheek into the trigeminal nerve, by applying heat to the nerve that causes pain, and by removing the pain signal to the brain, it relieves the nerve pain.
The best trigeminal nerve specialist
To treat trigeminal nerve pain, you should see a pain specialist so that the doctor can examine the cause of the problem with his expertise and start treatment with new non-surgical and closed methods.
