TRIGEMINAL NEURALGIA or TOOTH INFECTION?
The excruciating pain began with the advent of the cold January weather, a few hours after returning from grocery shopping. The electric shock-like pain shot through the left side of my face in spasmodic bursts which lasted several seconds and kept repeating every few minutes. I took acetaminophen and by bed-time, had to resort to the soothing heat of the heating pad.
I'd experienced similar pain two years previously, during the winter months, when only the heating pad offered any type of temporary relief. During that episode, the pain continued about three months and I had to be careful to keep my face covered with a scarf whenever I went outside. The pain had been bad then, but this year, it began with a vengeance and increased in intensity and duration until I could barely stand it.
I was unable finally, to venture outside, and the pain kept me lying down with the heating pad most of the day and night. The only way I could withstand the increasing pain was with the heat and by taking four acetaminophen and two ibuprophen every four hours. I was in pure misery. The pain was intense throughout my upper and lower left jaw, and sometimes shot back through and around my left ear.
Since I'd had similar pain before, I assumed it was a reoccurrence of neuralgia and began to do some research on the Internet. That's when I found the term, "Trigeminal Neuralgia". It's a disorder of the trigeminal nerve, one of twelve pairs of cranial nerves in the head. TN is a very rare condition, and occurs in approximately 150 per million people per year. The condition was described as early as the first century AD in the writings of Aretaeus. Early treatments included bloodletting and bandages containing poisons such as arsenic, mercury, hemlock, cobra and bee venom. An 18th century French surgeon, Nicolaus Andre coined the condition "Tic Douloureux", which mean "painful spasm".
TN pain is usually described as a sudden sharp electrical, shocking, stinging, stabbing pain that lasts for several seconds and may repeat many times over the course of the day. Usually only one side of the face is affected with pain, but TN of both sides is known to exist. The pain may last for days, weeks, or months and then may disappear for months, even years. TN pain is often triggered by certain stimuli, such as touching the face, eating, talking, shaving, or cold air. The triggers vary from person to person.
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