Everything You Need to Know About Trigeminal Neuralgia

Trigeminal is a sensory nerve in the face which carries sensation from the face. Trigeminal Neuralgia is a pain in face or head which stimulates like the current. The pain is sudden and it comes like current and it lasts for a few minutes, it is excruciatingly severe.

It has specific trigger factors such as eating or chewing from the backside, drinking water or speaking, touching the face with hand or towel. Even when you are travelling and the breeze can trigger this attack. This current starts from gums and then later spreads to the nose or front of the ears. In many countries, people are wrongly diagnosed for this issue saying its dental problem and teeth are removed

Currents like severe attacks (some people describe it as sudden chilly powder thrown on face or eye. Trigeminal Neuralgia starts with smaller duration attacks and gradually the duration of the attack increases. If this is not treated on time then it gets converted into Type 2 Trigeminal Neuralgia in which there is continuous background pain and on this pain, the patient gets sudden attacks, so the condition gets worse.

Initially, there are few medicines are given to curb the pain and make the nerve numb, they are like painkillers but these medicines do not serve the cause of the pain. They also affect the nervous system and cause side effects such as loss of balance while walking, memory problems, concentration problems etc. As the intensity of the attack increase, the dosages are also increased. So the patient is caught between the side effects of the medicine and painful attacks.

In the majority of patients, baring few exceptions such as tumors or multiple sclerosis, the most causes are Neurovascular conflict which blood vessels burrowing deep into the nerve and this case it is the trigeminal nerve. With each pulse, the blood vessels keep hitting the nerve and the nerve gets diseases and the pain attacks start.

Have queries or concern ?

Treatment for Trigeminal Neuralgia is Microvascular Decompression Surgery. This is the definitive treatment. This surgery has to be proven to be with the highest success rate. This is the only method which cures the root cause of Trigeminal Neuralgia. There are other methods as well for the treatment such as Radiofrequency lesioning treatment, Balloon Decompression Treatment, Gamma Knife Treatment. These are all peripheral procedure.

The final decision of opting for the treatment is up to the patient. But it should not happen that the person doesn’t know that he can get treated. Please be aware of this problem. Doctor appeals to help people to diagnose this problem and get treated.

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