Do you experience a tremendous amount of pain the moment you start brushing your teeth? Or maybe there’s a jolt of jabbing pain whenever you try to put makeup on your face? You are not sure what causes the pain or why it happens for such a short period of time. These are clear signs of a condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia.
If you are experiencing such short periods of intense pain on your face, you should contact Carolina Spine & Pain immediately about Trigeminal Neuralgia treatment in Greenville, SC. We are the leading clinic in Greenville that can efficiently treat Trigeminal Neuralgia and make sure that this chronic condition doesn’t bother you in the future.
Call us at 864-539-4549 to schedule your Trigeminal Neuralgia treatment in Greenville, SC.
Table of Contents
What Is Trigeminal Neuralgia?
Trigeminal Neuralgia also goes by the name tic douloureux. It is a condition where your face experiences excruciating pain from the jaw to your lower face. Sometimes, the pain is so severe that it may reach the region around your nose and eyes also. It’s as if someone is forcing you to sit down and giving you an electric shock on your face. The pain is unbearable and feels like someone stabbing all over your face repeatedly.
The problem with Trigeminal Neuralgia is that you never know when the pain will start. For example, it can be any of your daily activities, such as brushing your teeth, shaving, talking, chewing, or even smiling that can trigger the jabbing pain. According to doctors, there are two types of Trigeminal Neuralgia: Type 1 and Type 2.
Type 1
Type 1 is typical Trigeminal Neuralgia where you are most likely to experience painful episodes of intense, sporadic, and sharp pain on your face. The burning sensation may last for a few seconds or up to two minutes. It usually starts with small periods of intense pain but it may soon continue for a couple of hours.
Type 2
Type 2 is Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia where the pain is not as severe as Type 1 but more widespread. Instead of experiencing short episodes of shooting pain for a few seconds, the discomfort may exist for hours. Your face may ache for hours and it sometimes feels as if someone is pouring acid on your face and it is slowly burning down.
What Are the Symtoms of Trigeminal Neuralgia?
Eating, drinking, shaving, talking, touching your face, smiling, washing your face, or putting on makeup can trigger Trigeminal Neuralgia. But how will you figure out whether you have Trigeminal Neuralgia or not?
Here are a few symptoms that you should remember:
- Short episodes of shooting, jabbing, or severe pain usually feel as if someone is cutting through your face or giving you an electric shock.
- The pain lasts for a few seconds or a couple of minutes.
- The pain starts growing after a few days.
- Attacks become more severe and more frequent over time.
- The pain usually disturbs you during the day and not while sleeping.
- The pain takes place around the areas of your Trigeminal nerves, such as teeth, jaw, lips, gums, and cheek.
- Multiple attacks may take place for weeks or even months.
What Are Some of the Common Causes of Trigeminal Neuralgia?
The sudden jolt of pain happens because of the irritation of the Trigeminal nerve. This nerve has branches in your cheek, lower jaw, and forehead. It’s a set of cranial nerves responsible for providing various types of sensations on your face. The nerves have three branches, Mandibular Nerve, Maxillary Nerve, and Ophthalmic Nerve. We treat your Trigeminal Neuralgia according to the affected nerve so that it can’t affect its counterparts.
Here are a few common causes of Trigeminal Neuralgia:
- Doctors say that Trigeminal Neuralgia takes place when a blood vessel exerts too much pressure on specific Trigeminal nerves. For example, you may feel searing pain near your jaw while brushing your teeth. If you don’t treat the problem in time, the other nerves around your cheek and forehead may also get affected. As a result, it leads from Type 1 to Type 2 Trigeminal Neuralgia.
- The deterioration of myelin sheath, a nerve coating, causes Trigeminal Neuralgia. Sometimes, the presence of a lesion or tumor can also contribute to this condition.
- Stroke, facial trauma, or damage to the Trigeminal nerve after a sinus or oral surgery can also cause Trigeminal Neuralgia.
- There are a few idiopathic cases where doctors can’t identify a specific reason for this condition.
What Treatments Are Available at Carolina Spine & Pain for Trigeminal Neuralgia?
Carolina Spine & Pain is one of the best clinics in Greenville when it comes to diagnosing and treating Trigeminal Neuralgia. We will first ask you about the symptoms that you usually experience, followed by physically examining your neck and head area, including your teeth, temporomandibular joint, mouth, and ears. Our diagnosis is based on various factors, like the type of pain you normally experience, the spot on your face where it aches the most, and the activities that trigger the sudden painful episode.
We may also conduct a set of neurological tests to determine which nerves are causing the problem. It also helps us assess your pain tolerance. We rule out other factors that may cause facial pain by studying the test reports. Sometimes other disorders may mimic the symptoms of Trigeminal Neuralgia. You may experience TMJ disorder, post-herpetic neuralgia, migraines, or cluster headaches. We need to be sure that the symptoms are specifically for Trigeminal Neuralgia and not these disorders.
Once we finish assessing your test reports, we provide a combination of treatments to keep your Trigeminal Neuralgia under control. Some of the most common treatments that we provide are as follows:
- Medications
- Anticonvulsant medications
- Tricyclic antidepressants
- Muscle relaxants
- Injections
- Surgery
- Chiropractic care
Get Professional Trigeminal Neuralgia Treatment in Greenville, SC!
Trigeminal Neuralgia can be so painful that you may not be able to move your face. At Carolina Spine & Pain, we understand how uncomfortable the condition is and won’t take much time to start the treatment. You can call us at 864-539-4549 to set up an appointment as soon as possible. Once we diagnose your symptoms, we can start the treatment right away.